The Hindu : Supreme Court stays arrest of Bihar official

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003

National

National

Supreme Court stays arrest of Bihar official

NEW DELHI NOV. 25. The Supreme Court today stayed the non-bailable warrant issued by the Patna High Court against the Bihar Irrigation Secretary and Director of Prosecution, V. Jayashankar.

The interim stay was granted by a three-judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, acting on a petition from senior counsel Kapil Sibal. — UNI

PTI reported from Patna:

Earlier today, the Patna High Court adjourned for Friday the hearing of a contempt of court case against Mr. Jaishanker after the Senior Superintendent of Police informed that a police team had been sent to Delhi to arrest the officer. Justice Radha Mohan Prasad, who had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Mr. Jaishanker on Friday last, adjourned the case for November 28 after the SSP, in his compliance report, said Mr. Jaishanker was in Delhi and a police team, comprising a sub-inspector and two constables, had been sent to arrest the officer. Today was the fourth occasion when Mr. Jaishanker did not appear before the court despite an arrest warrant.

The court yesterday severely reprimanded the SSP for the non-execution of the arrest warrant against the officer.

The judge had issued the NBW against Mr. Jaishanker in a contempt of court case relating to irregularities in payment of post-retirement dues of a class III staff of the department, Krishna Sah, in violation of the court's order. During the hearing today, the Government's counsel V.N. Sinha told the court that his client had no confidence in him and the Bihar unit of the IAS Association had passed a resolution seeking his removal from the panel of Government counsel.The association yesterday adopted a resolution at a meeting saying that Mr. Sinha had not argued the case properly leading to the action against Mr. Jaishanker and sought his removal.

The judge said if senior bureaucrats acted like this the system was bound to collapse.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National