Uphaar tragedy: Matter involves wider public law ramifications, requires prioritisation, says HC

The sessions court on July 19, 2022, upheld the conviction order of the Ansal brothers and two others. It, however, reduced the jail term to the sentence already undergone – amounting to a little over eight months – and directed the accused be released forthwith.

A single-judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani was hearing AVUT’s plea for an early hearing of its revision plea seeking enhancement of the sentence and against the July 2022 order of the Principal District and Session Judge, Patiala House.

The association’s counsel Raavi Sharma drew the court’s attention to the observations made by a coordinate bench of the high court in its February 16, 2022 order – while deciding a miscellaneous application relating to the case – to emphasise that the “ground on which matter is to be taken for early disposal relates to tampering of the judicial record” and the same has to be “decided as expeditiously as possible in order to ensure that the faith of the public in the judicial system is not eroded”.

Senior counsels N Hariharan and Siddharth Agarwal appearing for the Ansal brothers and the counsel appearing for the other private respondent sought to file a reply to the application for early hearing stating that the copy of the application had not been served to them.

“In the opinion of this court considering the nature of the relief sought, there is no requirement of issuing notice,” the high court said.

The Delhi Police represented by senior advocate Dayan Krishnan supported AVUT’s early hearing application.

The court said, “In the opinion of this court considering the nature of the matter this court is inclined to agree heartily with the observations made by the coordinate bench in the early hearing application.” It added, “The matter at hand involves wider public law ramifications including those affecting judicial system itself which requires prioritisation. Application allowed.”

The court also noted that notice had been issued in AVUT’s revision plea in September 2022 and the senior counsels appearing for the Ansal brothers and counsel appearing for other private respondents sought time to file a reply. The court also noted that the trial court record had been received by the high court in electronic form. “It appears that all the volumes are not on record. The registry is directed to verify if the trial court record is complete, failing which requisition complete copies and provide copies to all the parties,” the court further directed.

The court listed the matter for July 18 to “verify whether the matter is ripe for hearing”. The senior counsels appearing for the Ansal brothers submitted that they have also filed revision pleas against the sessions court order which have been admitted and the court directed the registry to list these revision pleas on July 18 as well.

Observing that all the pleas have to be heard together, the court said, “It is made clear that the next date is not for final hearing of the matter”.