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Salman Khan case to come up for hearing today

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday re-scheduled the hearing on Bollywood star Salman Khan’s bail and revision petitions in the gazelle poaching case for Friday after calling for case records from the trial court which convicted him last year under the Wildlife Protection Act and passed a five-year sentence.

Justice H. R. Pawar at the High Court’s principal seat in Jodhpur deferred the hearing in the case and ordered it to be listed on Friday when two lawyers appeared in the court to represent Salman Khan. Salman Khan, accused of hunting an endangered antelope in 1998, spent another day of uncertainty in the Jodhpur Central Jail where he has been lodged since Friday last week.

The bail application was mentioned as the 46th item in the cause list of Court No. 7 headed by Mr. Justice Pawar. The Judge had on Wednesday ordered the case to be listed under the regular process when it was presented before him after Justice G. K. Vyas recused himself from hearing the plea.

Salman Khan has filed the revision petition against the Sessions court’s judgment rejecting his appeal and upholding the sentence handed down by the Chief Judicial Magistrate on April 10, 2006. He has also sought bail and suspension of the sentence pending the disposal of petition in the High Court.

Friday is the High Court’s last working day of the month, when the lawyers at the principal seat in Jodhpur traditionally boycott work in protest against the creation of the Court’s Jaipur Bench in early 1970s.

However, since the two lawyers representing Salman Khan are outsiders and not members of the local Bar Association, the hearing is likely to take place on schedule.

The lawyers appearing in the case are Dipesh Mehta, practising in Mumbai, and Uday Lalit, a Supreme Court advocate from New Delhi.

Salman Khan’s stay in the Central Jail barracks this time round has turned out to be longer than his previous incarceration. He was sent to the prison on April 10, 2006, after the lower court’s verdict, but was given bail by the Sessions Court on April 13, 2006.

The Bollywood star is reportedly spending most of his time sketching and reading.

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