SC Plea filed seeking reconstitution of committee to probe police excesses allegations
A plea was mentioned in the Supreme court on Tuesday, August 25, seeking reconstitution of the five-member high-powered committee headed by former top court judge Justice R Subhash Reddy to examine allegations of police excesses against student protesters in Delhi recently and violence against police personnel.
Expressing reservation over the composition, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for some of the petitioners, mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta vehemently opposed the plea, terming it "very mischievous".
"The prayer is to reconstitute the committee constituted by Your Lordships and investigate some minister, so-and-so, and they have given names that this judge should be heading it, etc. But this is not a political platform.
Something else is happening. This is not a political platform. Something else is happening. Some people have perennial problems with everything," Mehta said.
The CJI then remarked, "We don't appreciate mentioning of judges' names." Sankaranarayanan said he is only seeking listing of the application.
"Even when the application is listed, I'm not going to mention names, as I didn't last time. None of us mentioned names.
We gave it up and tried it. There's a way of doing these things. So we just request that the application be listed," Sankaranarayanan said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, also appearing for some petitioners, echoed Sankaranarayanan's concern and said it reflected a "common concern" of the petitioners.
"Whoever will work, will work under our supervision. We have not disposed of the matter. All of you are there to assist the committee. Let them work and see," the CJI said.
Earlier, the top court had formed a five-member high-powered committee headed by former top court judge Justice Reddy to examine allegations of police excesses against student protesters in Delhi recently and violence against police personnel.
It had said the committee would also comprise former Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, former Delhi High Court Judge Justice Shalinder Kaur, former CBI director Rishi Kumar Shukla and retired Meghalaya DGP L R Bishnoi.
The committee has been asked to examine use of excessive force and violence against protesters by police, including the deployment of pellet guns, as well as the alleged use of force and violence by protesters against police officials and other security personnel.
"This HPEC (High-Powered Enquiry Committee) has been constituted bearing in mind a wide variety of considerations, including the individual expertise and experience of each of its members, as well as the diversity of the committee, among other factors.
"We are confident that the recommendations of the HPEC will be of invaluable assistance to this Court, and the committee will be able to undertake a comprehensive assessment of all such issues as merit due contemplation," the bench had said.
The order came on a batch of pleas alleging police excesses against student protesters during the agitation spearheaded by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and allegations of violence against police personnel.
The CJP-led march to Parliament on July 20 in Delhi saw clashes between protesters and security personnel, who used lathis and teargas shells to disperse crowds attempting to move towards Parliament.
The student-led protests, which spread to several cities, were centred around the demand for resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The agitation, which began at Jantar Mantar on June 20, was called off on July 25 after Pradhan resigned and the government accepted the CJP's other demands.
(Inputs from PTI)
