New Delhi, February 7
The Supreme Court today stayed the Punjab and Haryana High Court order for a CBI inquiry into the Moga sex scandal involving some councillors, a journalist and businessmen facing trail for exploiting women, including minors.
The Punjab government on February 4 moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court challenging the December 11 order of the high court for the CBI investigation into the case.
The SLP had raised several grounds, including the “over stretching” of suo motu jurisdictional powers by the high court in ordering the CBI probe when the trial in it had proceeded much ahead.”
The interim stay was granted by a three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, after Punjab’s standing counsel Ajay Pal made a special mention of the case for early hearing.
He sought the stay on the high court order claiming that it would virtually stall the trial proceedings, which were proceeding smoothly and satisfactorily.
Since the apex court registry had already listed the state’s SLP for hearing on February 18, the court granted stay till the further hearing without issuing notices to the opposite party, which according to Ajay Pal, the court is expected to consider on the next date.
“The (high court) direction to the CBI to file status report in the impugned order is stayed,” the Bench, having Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal, the other two judges, in a brief one-line order said.
The Punjab government in its SLP had said despite lauding the work of the state police special investigating team, working under the supervision of a DIG-rank officer, in cracking the case, the high court had
still ordered the CBI probe merely on the petition of some accused.
The government had reproduced the observations of the HC in the SLP, appreciating the work done by DIG Ishwar Chander; SSP, Moga, L.K. Yadav; and DSP Bhupinder Singh in unearthing the scam by terming their investigation as “commendable”. “Still it had ordered transfer of the case to the CBI without there being any material on record to doubt the investigation of the state police,” the SLP said.
