Punjab and Haryana High Court to hear drugs case in March now

Chandigarh, February 1

The drugs case will now come up for hearing in March after the constitution of a new Bench by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The matter was directed to be placed before the Chief Justice (CJ) on Tuesday following Justice Pankaj Jain’s recusal.

“To be listed before some other Bench, of which one of us (Pankaj Jain, Judge) is not a member, after obtaining appropriate orders from the CJ, on March 24,” said the order passed in the “court on its own motion” or suo motu case placed before the Bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Jain.

Justice Masih was a member of the Bench that initially took the suo motu cognizance of a letter forwarded to the High Court by retired IPS officer Shashi Kant way back in September 2013, underscoring the drug menace in Punjab and requesting for a judicial scrutiny. Kant was assisting the Bench of then CJ Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Masih in another petition by Tarlochan Singh and other petitioners on the specific issue of drug menace in the jails of Punjab. —