HC to view CDs on panel’s complaint against Sukhbir

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 11

Digging into allegations that former Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal and MLA Bikram Majithia brought to disrepute the sacrilege commission headed by Justice Ranjit Singh, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today made clear its intent to play the recordings of a press conference and another event in the chamber before considering issuance of notice to the two.

The press conference, addressed by Sukhbir, was held on August 23 last year. The other recording was of the alleged act of dubbing the commission report as worth Rs 5 during a demonstration outside the Vidhan Sabha allegedly by Sukhbir, Majithia and other SAD members on August 27 last year.

The issuance of notice by Justice Amit Rawal, if at all, would virtually relegate the two to the position of accused on the criminal complaint submitted by Justice Ranjit Singh against them for deliberately and willfully making “false, derogatory and defamatory” statements on public platforms against him.

The decision to view the CDs came after Justice Ranjit Singh’s counsel APS Deol told Justice Rawal’s Bench that secondary evidence, in the absence of primary, was admissible under the provisions of the Evidence Act; and was produced before the court in the form of CDs after downloading the contents of the press conference from YouTube.

Deol also submitted that Justice Ranjit Singh wrote a letter to the channels for recordings of the events. But reply was not received. Justice Rawal, in turn, made it clear that the court would satisfy itself regarding the evidence before proceeding further.

At the very onset, Justice Rawal questioned Deol on the filing of a criminal complaint, the nature of offence and the list of witnesses.