Supreme Court Adjourns SAD Leader Bikram Singh Majithia Plea Against Quashing Of FIRs To April 11, 2022

The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the writ petition preferred by SAD Leader Bikram Singh Majithia against quashing of FIRs registered against him in NDPS Case for April 11, 2022.The matter was listed before the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant.What Transpired In Supreme Court Today?At the outset, when the matter was called for hearing, Justice Kant while referring to some of the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which the petitioner had relied on offered to recuse since the same were passed by the bench of which he was a part."There's a detailed reference to the petition pending in the High Court, detailed reference to the pleadings and then that the DGP passed the order for registration of FIR against him and there are some High Court orders too. Those orders were passed by my bench. I should clarify that if you have slightest of, I'd like to recuse. Those orders have some impact," remarked Justice Kant."That's alright. When your lordships are sitting, I know with what mindset your lordships deal with the matter. We have no problem," submitted Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the leader. He further submitted that the Enforcement Directorate had taken 3 statements from the accused.Explaining the legal issue involved in the case, Senior Counsel contended that, "There is a predicate offense relating to these accused. In that 2 of them have been convicted. There are 3 statements to the ED. For the offenses qua the ED, all the complaints have been filed. That investigation is over. Now you take the Statement u/s 50 and then start using it for the predicate offense and without any fresh material. Under section 50, it's non est. if there is an investigation no statement can be recorded. This is an investigation and such statements could not be recorded."Justice DY Chandrachud at this juncture proposed to hear the matter after lunch but since Senior Counsel had to be in some other court, the bench accordingly adjourned the matter for Monday i.e. April 11, 2022.BackgroundIt may be noted that the bench headed by CJI NV Ramana on February 2, 2022 had protected Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia from arrest in a drug case till February 23, taking note of the fact that the Punjab assembly elections are going to take place on February 20. The Court granted this relief to allow Majithia to do election campaigning. A Bench comprising CJI NV Ramana, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli directed Majithia to surrender before the concerned Court on February 23 seeking regular bail. During the hearing, the bench expressed concerns about the trend of criminal cases being filed against political opponents ahead of the elections."Sorry to say this, suddenly these cases are coming up before elections and everybody has reasons to suspect some motives...", CJI Ramana told Senior Advocate P Chidambaram, who was appearing for the State of Punjab."We are in a democracy. At least allow the candidates to file nomination and contest elections", CJI added.Majithia was granted protection by the Supreme Court against the January 24 order of a single bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which refused him pre-arrest bail in connection with an NDPS case registered against him.It may be noted that on January 10, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had granted him interim protection from arrest in Drugs Case on the condition that he shall co-operate in the police probe. The Bench of Justice Lisa Gillhad granted him interim protection while dealing with his anticipatory bail plea in a case registered against him by the Punjab Police last month under Sections 25 (allowing premises etc to be used for commission of an offence under the Act), 27A (financing illicit traffic and harboring offenders), and 29 (abetment and criminal conspiracy) of the Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.Case Title: Bikram Singh Majithia v The State of Punjab| WP(Crl) 124/2022Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Adjourns SAD Leader Bikram Singh Majithia Plea Against Quashing Of FIRs To April 11, 2022

Shruti Kakkar

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