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Supreme Court notice to Badal, family

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has issued notice to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family members on a petition filed by former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for a direction that the trial in corruption cases against Mr. Badal and others be shifted outside the State.

A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran, while issuing notice returnable on May 2, said, “We are not staying the proceedings [against Mr. Badal] in a Punjab court.”

Capt. Amarinder Singh had alleged that the trial was not being held in a free and fair manner in the State and that it should be transferred to Delhi to ensure a fair trial.

The cases against Mr. Badal, his wife and son were registered in 2003 by the then Congress-led government headed by Capt. Amarinder Singh.

Senior advocate T. R. Andhyarujina, appearing for Capt. Singh, alleged that after Mr. Badal became the Chief Minister there had been total subversion of justice and the atmosphere had been such that witnesses were turning hostile. He said that after the Badal government came to power, several public prosecutors were changed and out of the 59 witnesses examined, 20, a majority of whom were government officials, turned hostile.

Senior counsel K. K. Venugopal and Arun Jaitley, appearing for the Badal family, said Capt. Singh had made the allegations due to political considerations. Mr. Jaitley said “the district public prosecutor remains the same who was appointed by the previous government and everything happened before Mr. Badal came to power.”

In his transfer petition, Capt. Singh said that Mr. Badal being the prime accused in a criminal trial for alleged acts of corruption, amassing black money and benami property, the accused had ensured that the trial was now reduced to a farce. He said through this petition he was bringing to the notice of the Court the issue of fair trial which was not possible in the State of Punjab.

The Court posted the case for further hearing on May 2.

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