SC dismisses Bhullar’s plea in fake encounters row,slams HC

A Bench comprising Justices BS Chauhan and AK Patnaik also expressed displeasure at the Punjab and Haryana High Court bench for displaying “bias” in entertaining the plea for a CBI probe by Bhullar several years after the encounters.

“The order impugned has rightly been challenged to be a nullity at least on three grounds,namely,judicial bias,want of jurisdiction by virtue of application of the provisions of Section 362 Cr.P.C. coupled with the principles of constructive res judicata and the Bench had not been assigned the roster to entertain petitions under Section 482 Cr.P.C.

“The entire judicial process appears to have been drowned to achieve a motivated result which we are unable to approve of. The impugned orders challenged herein are declared to be nullity and as a consequence,the FIR registered by CBI is also quashed,” Justice Chauhan said writing the judgement.

The apex court passed the judgement upholding the appeals filed by Punjab government and Saini,challenging the HC orders.