Drugs case: HC bench recuses from hearing Majithia’s bail plea

Chandigarh: A Punjab and Haryana high court bench on Monday recused from hearing the bail plea of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, nearly a month after it had reserved the plea for final orders

Chandigarh: A Punjab and Haryana high court bench on Monday recused from hearing the bail plea of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, nearly a month after it had reserved the plea for final orders.

Majithia was booked in December 2021 by the Punjab Police in a drugs case. He was given protection from arrest by the Supreme Court and surrendered after the February 20 assembly polls.

“To be listed before some other bench”, the court ordered asking registry to put up the plea before the chief justice for “appropriate orders” so it can be assigned to a bench in which justice Augustine George Masih, senior judge on the bench, is not part of. The bench has not assigned any reason for the recusal from the case.

On May 31, the high court bench of justice AG Masih and justice Sandeep Moudgil had reserved the petition for the final order after completion of arguments. Majithia had approached high court seeking bail on May 23. The bench had heard the plea for two days on May 30 and May 31, before reserving it for the final order. Now, the matter will be heard again by a different bench.

In his plea Majithia had argued that there was no credible and legally admissible material against him. “The case is blatantly political in nature and has been registered after an inordinate delay with the purpose of using the same as an election plank in the assembly polls of February 2022,” he had argued.

The Punjab Police had claimed that witnesses have specifically said that two NRI fugitives were supplying chemicals used in medicines to Canada and that the Akali leader was their “partner in that”. The police had also opposed the bail submitting that witnesses examined have expressed concern about their security if Majithia is released on bail.

Majithia was booked under Sections 25 (punishment for allowing premises), 27 (A) (whoever is financing any activities pertaining to narcotic drugs) and 29 (party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on December 20, 2021.