The Supreme Court Registry has put a spoke into the latest attempt made by real estate tycoon Gopal Ansal to circumvent the jail sentence in the Uphaar fire tragedy case.
Asked to surrender before March 9 to undergo seven months sentence remaining of his one-year jail term, the SC Registrar has issued an order refusing to register an application filed by Ansal to modify the February 9, 2017 order directing his surrender. The application sought modification of the February 9 order to the extent allowing him to be treated at par with his elder brother Sushil Ansal, who was exempted from going to jail due to his old age.
According to Registrar, the February 9 order was passed on a review petition and as per the SC rules, any modification of the same requires the aggrieved party to file a curative petition. Pointing this objection as the ground to refuse registration, the Registrar (Judicial) Chirag Bhanu Singh said, "In substance, he (Ansal) seeks parity for reducing the sentence so imposed on him…Seeking parity with the other accused certainly cannot be a ground for modification per se. After the disposal of the appeal and review petition there is no reasonable cause to accept the present application for
registration."
Despite the Registrar denying permission to register, the application will still be listed on Monday before a Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha. This is because the CJI on Friday had allowed listing of the application on Monday after Ansal's lawyer senior advocate Ram Jethmalani mentioned before CJI's bench complaining of the non-listing of the application.