NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday expressed shock at an order passed by the Punjab Haryana High Court, granting protection from arrest to former Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini not only in the pending cases but also in the cases likely to be registered against him in future.
A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, said the order was unprecedented and sought to know how protection can be granted for future cases which have not even been registered.
“This is unprecedented order. How can future course of action be stayed? It is shocking and three of us (judges) feel that it is unprecedented. This will require hearing,” the Court said, urging the High Court Chief Justice to reassign the matter to another judge and not the one who passed the interim order.
“We will request the High Court to dispose of the petition by another judge and not the same judge within 2 weeks. We request the Chief Justice to take it up himself or by any other judge and we will keep this matter pending (SLP) in (Supreme) Court,” CJI Ramana said.
Single-judge of the High Court Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan had on Thursday ordered that Saini should not be arrested till April 20 in various cases pending against him except one – the murder of Balwant Singh Multani since that matter is pending before Supreme Court.
Besides Multani murder, Saini also faces a trial before a Special CBI Court in Delhi for the alleged abduction of automobile businessman Vinod Kumar, his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar, and their driver Mukhtiyar Singh.
While Vinod and Mukhtiyar were picked up by the police from the parking lot of the Punjab & Haryana High Court on March 15, 1994, Ashok was allegedly abducted from Ludhiana the same day.
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