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Supreme Court Imposes Costs On Sanjiv Bhatt For Challenging HC Direction Setting Deadline For Trial In Drug Seizure Case
Sohini Chowdhury
20 Feb 2023 9:59 AM GMT
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging a Gujarat High Court order which set a deadline for the trial in an alleged drug planting case in which he is an accused. The High Court has directed the trial to be competed by March 31, 2023.A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Aravind Kumar termed Bhatt's petition "frivolous" and imposed...
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging a Gujarat High Court order which set a deadline for the trial in an alleged drug planting case in which he is an accused. The High Court has directed the trial to be competed by March 31, 2023.
A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Aravind Kumar termed Bhatt's petition "frivolous" and imposed a cost of Rupees 10,000 on him, which is to be deposited before the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority.
"The parties in a criminal trial should be more interested in the expeditious disposal of the trial......The grant of extension of time is a matter between the trial court and high court", the bench noted in the order.
Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for Bhatt, took exception to the High Court issuing a peremptory direction, despite the trial judge's estimate that 6 months more time is required. He submitted that only 16 out of 60 witnesses have been examined. In view of the deadline set by the High Court, the trial court is not considering the applications filed by the petitioner, the senior counsel argued. Therefore, the petitioner is being denied the right of a fair trial, it was argued.
Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the State of Gujarat, opposed Bhatt's application. He pointed out that the present High Court order is an extension of a previous order passed in October 2021. The challenge against the previous order was rejected by the Supreme Court. Singh contended that the petitioner has suppressed the dismissal of the first SLP in the present petition.
"He is continuously filing applications at the trial court. He does not want this to be concluded. My submission is that if he is suppressing this, then he does not deserve any indulgence", Singh submitted.
In April 2011, Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 riots. He claimed to have attended a meeting convened by the then CM, Mr. Modi, on February 27, 2002, when instructions were allegedly given to the State Police to not take any action against the perpetrators of violence.
The Court appointed SIT however gave clean chit to Modi, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in June 2022. In 2015, Bhatt was removed from the police service, on the ground of "unauthorised absence".
In October 2015, the Supreme Court dismissed Bhatt's plea for constituting a special investigation team (SIT) for cases filed against him by Gujarat Government.
He is at present serving life imprisonment in a custodial death case of 1990, after his conviction in July 2019.
What is the present case about?
Bhatt was a superintendent of police in Banaskantha district in 1996. The district police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, a Rajasthan-based lawyer, in 1996, claiming that they had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur town where the latter was staying. However, the Rajasthan police later said Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to transfer a disputed property located at Pali in Rajasthan. Former police inspector IB Vyas moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter. In June, 2018 the high court handed over the probe to the state CID, and Bhatt was arrested in September, 2018. Thereafter, chargesheet was submitted against Vyas and Bhatt under Sections 120B, 116, 119, 167, 204, 343 of the IPC and Section 17, 18, 29 and 58(2) and 59(2)(b) of the NDPS Act. In 2021, Bhatt had filed an application for obtaining documents which was rejected by the Gujarat High Court. Bhat filed a revision petition challenging the same. The High Court partly allowed the petition directing the trial court to conclude the trial within 9 months. On 10.06.2022, the High Court extended the period granted for conclusion of the trial at the request of the Special NDPS Judge and the Additional Sessions Judge. On 06.01.2023, the Additional Sessions Judge again sought an extension of 6 months. The High Court acceded to the request, but asked the Additional Sessions Judge to complete the trial by 31.03.2023.
