HC judge says he wont hear Tytler plea

The hearing of a petition filed in Delhi High Court by Congress leader Jagdish Tytler,contesting a trial court order for reopening investigation in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case,was on Friday deferred till July after the judge who was to hear the plea recused himself.

Written by Aneesha Mathur

New Delhi | June 1, 2013 01:02 AM IST

3 min read

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Justice Kailash Gambhir,who was due to hear arguments on the petition,refused to hear the matter. It would be better if I did not hear the matter, he said. Senior advocate U U Lalit,who appeared on Tytlers behalf,asked the court to issue orders giving relief till the matter is heard.

I am not issuing any order. It will be heard before another bench, Justice Gambhir said. The matter will now come up before a different bench on July 3 once the High Court reopens after summer vacations.

Tytler had approached the High Court against an order of the sessions court which rejected a case closure report filed by the CBI and directed the agency to reopen investigations into Tytlers alleged role in the death of three persons and destruction of property at gurdwara Pul Bangash during the riots that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

Additional Sessions Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj,in her order on April 10,had set aside the case closure report and had asked the CBI to record the statements of witnesses,who it had come to know during the investigation itself,are claiming/ shown/ named to be eyewitnesses of the incident.

The sessions court issued the order on the petition of a woman whose husband was killed in the riots at Gurdwara Pul Bangash. She alleged that four witnesses had come forward and named Tytler as having been present at the scene of the riots,urging the crowd to attack Sikhs. The CBI had declined to record their statements,taking the stand that they were unreliable witnesses.

Appealing in the High Court on Thursday,Tytler sought quashing of the sessions court order,saying it did not have the authority to direct investigation.

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The trial court order is contrary to the scheme of code of CrPC. The method and mode of investigation by a probe agency is the absolute prerogative of the agency and it is not for the court to direct the agency which witness should be examined by it, the petition stated.

The settled position of law is that a direction for investigation can be given only if an offence is prima facie found to have been committed or a persons involvement is prime facie established but direction to investigate whether any person has committed an offence or not cannot be legally given, the plea stated.

The case relates to the killing of three persons Badal Singh,Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near gurdwara Pul Bangash,and has been investigated by the CBI twice,in 2007 and 2009,with the agency giving a clean chit to Tytler citing lack of reliable witnesses.