Big relief to former DGP Sumedh Saini: HC defers hearing to April 8
Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday deferred hearing to April 8 on a plea from former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini in which the court has stayed the probe in different FIRs against him.
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The high court bench of justice Avneesh Jhingan deferred the hearing after it was told that Punjab advocate general Anmol Rattan Sidhu has to argue the matter and he is awaiting instructions. The court deferred hearing observing that there is direction by the Supreme Court for disposal of the matter, preferably within 15 days and on March 15 too, it was adjourned as the state’s counsel had sought for adjournment submitting that due to change of the government in the state, he was not having instructions.
Acting on a plea from the Punjab government, the Supreme Court had on March 4 asked the chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court to either hear the pleas himself or assign it to any other bench and dispose of the same within two weeks.
The apex court had expressed shock and disapproval on an order passed by the high court bench of justice Arvind Sangwan on September 9, 2021, in which the former DGP was granted “blanket protection” even in the cases to be filed against him in the future. The SC had termed the order “unprecedented.”
In his September 9 order, justice Sangwan had termed the former DGP’s case of “exceptional circumstances” and had observed that “involvement of the petitioner in multiple cases can be a political ploy in the wake of the coming state legislative assembly elections (which took place in February)” and had given him the protection. It was ordered that there will be a clear stay on his arrest in all cases pending or likely to be registered except one FIR where the matter is pending before the Supreme Court.
The order was passed in a 2018 plea of the former DGP in which he was seeking blanket bail from the high court and directions that FIRs registered or likely to be registered to be transferred to the CBI as then Congress government, led by Capt Amarinder Singh, was allegedly acting out of vengeance against him.
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-PTC News
