New Delhi, April 11
In what could possibly change the course of the ongoing corruption case against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal, the Supreme Court today issued a notice of motion on a petition seeking the transfer of the case to a court outside Punjab.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran, however, refused to stay the ongoing trial that is on in a court in Ropar.
The next date of hearing in the trial courts is May 3 while the reply to the notice of motion is to be filed by the father-son duo in the apex court on May 2. The court is slated to hear the matter on that day.
The petition had been filed by former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh seeking that case against the Badal family be shifted outside Punjab and tried in a court in Delhi.
Senior counsel Andhyarjuna appearing for Amarinder Singh contended that since Badal became Chief Minister, most of the prosecution witnesses, who are government officers, have turned hostile and a free-and-fair trial is not possible in an ‘intimidating’ atmosphere in the courts in Punjab.
He claimed that the prosecution sought the discharge of the charges during the proceedings in the trial court on April 9. He told the court how more than a dozen witnesses, all high-ranking government officials, turned hostile. Even the investigating officer Surinder Pal Singh, SSP, economic offences wing, has said in court that the challan was prepared by his senior officers and he merely signed the same. On the
other hand, K.K. Venugopal appearing for Badal, however, contended that the petition was politically motivated and the petitioner has no locus standi to file it. The counsel for Amarinder Singh contended that the changed atmosphere in the court will make a lot of difference and all 138 witnesses in the case were not government servants.
The apex court wanted to know if the government employees will remain the employees of the state government and can they be expected to be free from the “pressure” even if the case is transferred to Delhi. Badal and his family members are facing trial under the Prevention of Corruption Act for acquiring assets disproportionate to their known sources of income by misusing their official status. An FIR was registered against Badal and his family members in 2003 when Amarinder Singh was the Chief Minister. Badal has often claimed that the case was registered on political grounds.
