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SC to hear Punjab govt plea against bail to Majithia in drugs case after 4 weeks
Bhagwant Mann-led government has challenged high court’s August 10 order, which stated there were “reasonable grounds” to believe the Akali leader was not guilty
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would hear an appeal by the Punjab government against a Punjab and Haryana high court order granting bail to former minister Bikram Singh Majithia in a drugs case after four weeks.
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At the outset, the bench, comprising justice Aniruddha Bose and justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, was urged that the hearing be passed over as senior lawyer Shyam Divan, who was to argue on behalf of the Punjab government, was busy in another court.
“It will be difficult to pass over the case today. We will rather list it for hearing after four weeks,” the bench said.
On January 30, justice Surya Kant, while sitting on the bench with justice JK Maheshwari, had recused himself from hearing the Punjab government’s plea, saying that he was part of the high court bench that had directed the setting up of a special task force to probe the drugs case.
Consequently, the matter was referred to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on the administrative side for setting up another bench and the matter was then listed before the bench led by justice Bose. The Punjab government has challenged the high court order dated August 10, 2022, which stated that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Majithia was not guilty.
The Shiromani Akali Dal leader had walked out of jail the same day.
Majithia was booked on the basis of a 2018 report of the special task force (STF) into a drug racket in Punjab.
The STF report was based on confessional statements given to the Enforcement Directorate by accused, including Jagjit Singh Chahal, Jagdish Singh Bhola and Maninder Singh Aulakh.
