No relief for Prajapati, likely to surrender in gangrape case

After the Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain the plea of the Minister, head constable and close aide of Gayatri, Chandrapal surrendered before Lucknow police this afternoon. Chandrapal was in the security of the Minister, provided by the state police. He was also absconding for the past couple of days. A senior police official has confirmed about the surrender of the policeman. Meanwhile, reports said that Gayatri, along with six other accused in the gangrape case, could also surrender before the police or court very soon. Earlier, the apex court expressed unhappiness that its order on lodging of FIR against the SP leader was being given “political colour.”

A bench headed by Justice A K Sikri clarified that it has only ordered the Uttar Pradesh police to lodge an FIR against Prajapati in cases of alleged gangrape and attempt to rape a woman and her daughter and is not monitoring these cases. The Minister can approach the court concerned for appropriate relief, the apex court said while rejecting Prajapati’s plea for recall of its order for lodging an FIR against him. The apex court had on February 17 directed the UP Police to lodge an FIR against Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Prajapati and asked it to submit an action taken report regarding the incidents in eight weeks in a sealed cover.“We have simply directed registration of an FIR and investigation in these cases,” the bench said, adding, “now political colour is being given to this order. It is unfortunate”.

The Supreme Court on Monday kept its options open on examining the dropping of conspiracy charge against accused like L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti in the demolition of the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri structure in Ayodhya in 1992.

The apex court also came up with the option of ordering a joint trial of cases arising out of the two FIRs lodged in the wake of the demolition of the disputed structure. “There are 13 persons who were discharged only on technical grounds. Today, we are saying why can’t we club both the cases and have a joint trial,” a bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and R F Nariman said.  “We will not accept the discharge on technical grounds and we will allow supplementary charge sheet,” the bench said.  These observations were made orally during a brief hearing by the bench, which posted the matter for further hearing on March 22.

Supreme Court on Monday exempted the Centre from filing before it the status report on the progress made by the international tribunal in deciding the jurisdiction issue in the case of Italian marines, accused of killing Indian fishermen.

A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said the Centre need not file a status report after every three months before this court and asked it to rather file a final report when the tribunal decides whether India or Italy can try the marines. The marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, were accused of killings two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012. “Petitioners shall be liable to adhere to the time schedules fixed in relation to hearing before the international arbitral tribunal,” the bench also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul said, adding that the final award of the tribunal be put up before it.

The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Centre and the RBI on a plea alleging that people were not being allowed to deposit demonetised currency notes till March 31 as promised. “Issue notice returnable by Friday,” a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said and asked petitioner Sharad Mishra to serve the copy of its notice to the Centre and the RBI The plea referred to the speech of PM on November 8, 2016 and sub-sequent notification of RBI spelling out that people may deposit demonetised currency notes even after December 31, 2016 at specific RBI branches up to March 31, 2017 after complying with certain procedural requirements. The RBI’s last ordinance, which permits only NRIs to do so is a breach of PM’s assurance.