Breather for government in apex court this week
By IANSSunday, February 20, 2011
NEW DELHI - As the government, hounded by allegations related to scams, prepares for the budget session of parliament starting Monday, it can look forward to a breather in the Supreme Court with some cases that put it in the dock earlier not listed for this week.
However, an apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly will hear the case related to violence in Haryana’s Mirchpur village.
In Monday’s proceedings, the railways are expected to tell the court about the losses suffered on account of a blockade of rail movement by agitating members of the Jat community.
The Haryana government is also expected to give details of the financial losses suffered by it on account of the blockade of the national highways by Jats.
The agitators are protesting against the arrest of 98 people from their community for their alleged involvement in an attack on a Dalit habitation in Mirchpur village, about 300 km from Chandigarh, in Hisar district April 21 last year.
A 70-year-old man and his 18-year-old physically-challenged daughter were killed in the incident.
In their 11-day-long agitation, that started Jan 15, the agitators blocked the movement of trains at Julani village near Jind railway station.
The agitation led by 12 “khap panchayats” disrupted the rail traffic between Delhi and Ferozpur in Haryana.
Expressing its displeasure over the handling of the agitation by the state government and the inconvenience to people, the court in its last hearing said that “the blockade of the national highway cannot be tolerated”.
The court could not be a mute spectator to all this, the court observed.
While a Delhi court, which is trying the violence case, has asked the Haryana government to shift the accused to Delhi, the agitating Jats are demanding that the accused should be lodged either in Rohtak or Hisar jail.
Another case that is likely to come up in the apex court this week, is the appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict discharging Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and 20 others of the conspiracy charge to the demolition the Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya Dec 6, 1992. The high court verdict was delivered May 20, 2010.
The 20 others who were discharged also included Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders.
Since the investigating agency filed its appeal Friday evening, it is still not known when it would be listed for hearing in the court this week.
