An emergency meeting of human rights lawyers from Punjab and Chandigarh held in the city on Sunday took a serious view of the registration of cases of sedition against the Sikh leaders who had organised the radical Sarbat Khalsa recently.
lawyers Navkiran Singh, Rajwinder Singh Bains, Brijinder Singh Sodhi, Tejinder Singh Sudan, Sukhbinder Singh Bawa, Manpreet Singh Chahal and Parminder Singh, in the meeting presided over by Amar Singh Chahal, said there was nothing wrong in holding the congregation, which was their democratic right and was held peacefully. They termed the registration of the cases as “unconstitutional” and “illegal”.
“The arrest of the leaders even under preventive steps, and registration of cases of sedition and waging war against the state was nothing but misuse of law, with the motive of perpetuating the family rule of the Badals,” the lawyers said, adding that they held the State Government responsible for bringing the state to a social and economic breakdown.
The lawyers demanded that the Kotkapura police firing incident should be handed over to the CBI or got inquired by a sitting High Court judge so that guilty police officials were identified and prosecuted.