Supreme Court Stays Allahabad HC Proceedings In Which CBI Was Directed To Secure Evidence In 2009 UP Police Custodial Death
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
21 July 2026 9:56 AM IST
The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed further proceedings before the Allahabad High Court concerning the custodial death of a disabled man in Uttar Pradesh in 2009.
The High Court bench comprising Justice Atul Shreedharan and Justice Siddharth Nandan, in its order passed on May 16, rebuked the Uttar Pradesh police and the National Human Rights Commission for their "institutional failures" in closing the 16-year-old custodial death case.
A High Court bench, in the impugned order passed on May 18, severely criticised the NHRC for closing the case by treating the police's version as gospel truth without conducting any independent investigation. Particularly, the High Court had expressed anguish over videography and photography of the crime scene and the postmortem not being made available to it for the last 16 years. Orders were passed directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to secure missing video evidence within 60 days. The High Court retained the matter for further consideration, and listed it to August 10.
Meanwhile, this order was appealed by the State of Uttar Pradesh and the then SSP Ajay Kumar Mishra. A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice and stayed further proceedings before the Allahabad High Court.
"Issue notice, returnable within four weeks. In the meantime, further proceedings in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 16563 of 2010 before the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad shall remain stayed."
The matter concerns a public interest litigation filed by NGO-Association For Advocacy And Legal Initiatives Lko (AALI) concerning the 2009 death of one Nahar Singh, a man with a 40% physical disability, inside the Dannahar police station lockup (Mainpuri District).
While police claimed that he hanged himself (in the urinal part of the lockup) using his leather belt, the High Court noted the postmortem revealed a "knot mark" rather than a belt buckle impression, alongside fractured tracheal rings, which, the bench underscored, are more probable in a case of strangulation rather than hanging.
Case Details: AJAY KUMAR MISHRA v ASSOCIATION FOR ADVOCACY AND LEGAL INITIATIVES & ORS.|Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s).17458-17459/2026
