After unsuccessful attempts at compelling the SAD-BJP led Punjab Government to hand over Rs 6,000 crore drug racket cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday suffered another blow before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Bajwa’s plea for placing on record the newspaper clippings related to the issue could not stand the test of the high court, and was dismissed as withdrawn by the Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
At the same time, the Bench has also made it clear that the corridors of justice were not an arena to fight their political battle. The Bench, in fact, asked the political parties to rise above their own interest to come out with constructive suggestions. The observations, made in the open court, came after the Punjab Advocate-General Ashok Aggarwal argued that the issue was being raised by the political rivals on regular basis with an eye on general elections.
Aggarwal alleged that Congress was trying to fight its political battle in the Court, and also referred to the possibility of misusing the central probe agency to tackle the political rivals by the party in power at the Centre.
Maintaining that it would dilute the larger issue, the Bench cautioned the political parties to bring “their battles” to the High Court. “If this is the intention, we will not even entertain the plea,” the Bench told Bajwa’s counsel, Navkiran Singh. The Bench asserted that there were other places to fight the battle.
The Bench also heard another senior Congress leader Jagmeet Singh Brar, as he referred to a study conducted abroad on the problem in Punjab. Brar also referred to a letter written by senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh against his own men on the issue of drugs.
Giving another awkward moment to Bajwa, the Bench also refused to take note of the allegations that the names of some Akali leaders were being blotted out, maintaining that mere mentioning of names was not enough.
Earlier also, the State party president’s attempt to nail the Akalis in the drug-menace case with the judicial hammer has went wrong with the High Court refusing to entertain the two petitions - filed by Bajwa and senior party leader Jagmeet Brar - demanding CBI probe in the drug racket case.
At that time, the Bench, in a move aimed at cutting the multiplicity of cases, has given the liberty to the petitioners to “assist the Court” in a similar petition covering the “larger issue” pending before the Court, scheduled to be come up on January 29. However, his attempts to “assist” the Court conked out when Bajwa’s counsel tried to put on record the newspaper clippings.
The development took place at a time when the state Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia’s name had surfaced in the racket as kingpin. The orders, dismissing Bajwa’s petition as withdrawn, came as a setback of sorts for the party not only in its tirade to pin down the rivals, but also to salvage its own image, just before the 2014 parliamentary polls. Already, the Akalis are making attempts to shift the focus from Majithia to Bajwa after accusing him of having link with the drug lords and terror outfits.