New Delhi, February 16
The Supreme Court today stayed an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court impleading Chandigarh District and Sessions Judge (DSJ) H.S. Bhalla as party in a petition seeking CBI probe into the Burail Jail case in which four prisoners, including three accused in the Beant Singh assassination, had fled through a tunnel dug by them.
Issuing notices to the Chandigarh Administration and petitioner Viresh Shandilya, who had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) before the high court, the Supreme Court said: “The direction given by the high court regarding the petitioner (Bhalla) is stayed.”
The stay order was passed by the apex court after the DSJ’s counsel, Mr Rakesh Dwivedi, said there was no reason for the high court to make him a party in the case as he had no role to play in the jail administration. Neither was the DSJ named a respondent in the PIL, counsel said.
The high court had passed the order on January 29 after issuing notices on the PIL.
Describing the high court notice to the DSJ as unjustified, the Supreme Court told his counsel: “If there is any other problem, he can bring it to its notice.”
Challenging it, DSJ Bhalla in his special leave petition (SLP) said he was impleaded as party only for his role as a visiting judge to the jail to hear the complaints of the under-trial prisoners.
“It transpires that the show-cause notice was issued on the administrative side on the basis of the observation of the (HC) Chief Justice alone, without the matter ever being placed before or being considered by the Full Court, as is mandatorily required by the Constitution,” the SLP said.
