Fresh notices issued to Sukhbir, Majithia
Tuesday 26/03/2019
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CHANDIGARH: A Punjab and Haryana high court bench has issued fresh notices to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and his brother-inlaw Bikram Singh Majithia, here on Monday, in connection to a criminal case filed by justice Ranjit Singh (retd).
The case is of Badal and Majithia’s alleged utterances against the one-man commission that justice Singh was heading, to look into sacrilege incidents of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab and the subsequent police firing on Sikh protesters in 2015.
Earlier in the day, the bench of justice Amit Rawal had issued bailable warrants against both the leaders, but the order was recalled by evening. It had come to light that they were not intimated properly on the proceedings and there were some discrepancies in the way the summoning orders were intimated on the addresses of both the leaders. Fresh notices have now been issued for April 29.
“Fresh notices have been issued to both the leaders. They will have to appear in court on April 29,” said senior advocate APS Deol, who appeared on behalf of justice Singh.
Earlier notices were issued to the duo in February. Justice Singh’s report was tabled in Punjab assembly August 28 last year.
Justice Singh, in the complaint, has referred to statements made against the commission and its head by the SAD leaders, which the former judge said were in violation of Section 10-A of the Commission of Inquiry Act of 1952, which deals with penalty for acts awarded to bring the commission or any of its members into disrepute.
For the complaints made by the commission members, HC acts as a trial court. If found guilty, they can be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or fine, or both.The complaint made to the HC says that the duo termed his report as a “pile of waste paper” and referred to the judge as “injustice Ranjit Singh.
As per the petition, Sukhbir had accused the former judge of acting in a ‘malicious manner’ and indulging in ‘cheating and forgery’ while preparing the report.The statements were made on August 23, 2018, in Amritsar and again outside the Punjab assembly in Chandigarh on August 27, 2018.
