Why exception for PPSC: Gill

Contending that a fresh inquiry will amount to “prejudging the issue and setting a wrong precedent”,Gupta,counsel for former Punjab DGP K P S Gill,said it will be unjustified if a constitutional exception is carved out for PPSC by not acting upon the Vigilance report.

In 2010,Gill had moved the high court seeking directions to the Vigilance Bureau to expedite the probe into the scam.

“This Commission is nothing but Ravi Sidhu Commission in new guise,” said Gupta. Former PPSC chairman Ravi Sidhu was arrested by the Vigilance in 2002 in a multi-crore cash-for-job scam.

While saying that PPSC enjoys no immunity from the Vigilance inquiry and investigation,Gupta demanded that an FIR should be registered on the basis of the report.

As demanded,the Punjab government on Wednesday produced a copy of the original noting of the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,who had marked a Vigilance inquiry into the scam following a series of reports by an English daily.

Adjourning the case to November 21,the court directed the counsel for the respondents to file their objections on merits of the Vigilance report — even one-and-a-half years after the report was submitted to the court,it is yet to be taken on record.

Meanwhile,questioning the authenticity of the investigation,a PPSC member who stands indicted in the scam,filed an affidavit on Wednesday alleging that one of the investigating officers was a convicted DSP.