The Hindu : New Delhi News : Supreme Court to hear petitions against Modi on Monday

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Supreme Court to hear petitions against Modi on Monday

Legal Correspondent

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his speech on December 4 justifying the killing of Sohrabuddin.

A Bench of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice Dalveer Bhandari gave the direction when senior counsel Dushyant Dave appearing for Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin Sheikh “mentioned” the matter for early hearing. Prashant Bhushan, counsel for Javed Akhtar and others, too made a similar mention. The Bench directed that both the petitions be listed for hearing on Monday.

Mr. Rubabuddin said in his petition that contempt of the court was apparent from the fact that while the Gujarat government told the court that Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter, Mr. Modi, at an election rally, glorified the killing.

He said: “Mr. Modi’s speech flies in the face of the rule of law in a civilised democracy and is a gross interference in the administration of justice.

“It shows that the State, on Mr. Modi’s instructions, was giving an impression to the court that it proposes to diligently pursue the prosecution of those involved in the fake encounter, but is doing all it can to quietly but surely subjugate it.”

Mr. Rubabuddin said he was constrained to file the petition as the Gujarat government and the Chief Minister continued to mislead the court by submitting false affidavits, leading to severe miscarriage of justice. It was well known that the Chief Minister, on account of his position, could influence the police. His utterances raised grave and legitimate apprehensions about the sincerity and bona fides of the investigating officers.

The petitioner said he had been constantly complaining that the investigation was not fair, independent and impartial. Investigation was continuing into the murder of Tulsiram Prajapati, Sohrabuddin’s associate and a key witness in the case. With Mr. Modi openly justifying the killing, no justice would be done if the trial was held in Gujarat, he said, and sought an interim stay on the trial and a direction for a CBI probe into the killing of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauserbi and Prajapati.

Counsel on record for Gujarat, Hemantika Wahi, told The Hindu that senior counsel K.T.S. Tulsi was yet to inform her that he was withdrawing from the case and had not returned the brief. Senior counsel Ranjit Kumar, who was earlier asked to appear for Gujarat in the Javed Akhtar matter, would continue to represent the State.

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