What is scandalous about Judge Loya's probe?
- Vinod Chand
If you want to understand what is scandalous about Judge Loya's probe, read on;
The first scandalous thing is that the lawyers who were defending Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Encounter Case became lawyers for Maharashtra Government to fight for stopping an inquiry into the death.
The second scandalous thing was that a person close to a top BJP leader moved a PIL in the Supreme Court and during the hearing instead of asking for a probe into the death turned into a litigant that was asking for stopping a probe into the death as by then it had dawned on him that the PIL that he had filed was based on hearsay and stories in a magazine.
The third scandalous thing was that the PIL by Bombay Lawyers Association was filed in Bombay High Court but was kept pending by the registry for several days and surreptitiously two PIL's were filed in the Supreme Court and immediately accepted leaving the Bombay Lawyers Association no option but to move their PIL to the Supreme Court.
The fourth scandalous thing has already been detailed by the four Supreme Court Judges in their unprecedented in history, press conference where they questioned the method of operation of the Supreme Court and the allotment of cases to benches that could give favorable orders.
The fifth scandalous thing was that Maharashtra Government commissioned a 'discrete inquiry' by a Police Officer, which was completed in a matter of days and which became the main document relied on by the Supreme Court even though neither the inquiry report nor the statements given by any of those who had been supposedly interrogated by the said senior police officer came on affidavit. They just made plain statements as ordinary citizens and not under oath. This has set very dangerous precedents for the justice delivery system. The scandalous thing is that would all courts now accept plain statements not made under oath as acceptable on record in any / all cases?
The sixth scandalous thing was that no person who had been subjected to an inquiry by the Police Officer was called for questioning by the court or allowed to be cross questioned even when repeated requests were made by the petitioners, Bombay Lawyers Association through their lawyer Dushyant Dave.
The seventh scandalous thing was that the petitioners were denied copies of post mortem and ECG reports during the hearing of the case.
The biggest scandal is that the mere words of some persons who did not even come to the Supreme Court on oath were accepted as gospel truth due to the position that they held as judges in Bombay High Court and subordinate courts.
The rejection of Judge Loya's death probe request will go down as probably the darkest hour in the history of free and modern India. We have hit the nadir, the lowest point. Our whole justice system now seems to resemble a scandal. It looks like that all established judicial procedures have been set aside to save the skin of one person and in doing that justice has been denied.
If people don't wake up to this reality, there is hardly any hope left for the country.
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Bihar CM Nitish Kumar takes oath as Rajya Sabha member
New Delhi (PTI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday took oath as a member of Rajya Sabha, marking the end of his two-decade rule in the eastern state and paving the way for a new chief minister.
The oath was administered by Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan in his chamber at a brief ceremony. The Chairman later welcomed him as a member of the Upper House and also on his return in Parliament.
Kumar took the oath in Hindi in the presence of Union Minister J P Nadda, who is also leader of the house, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Panchayati Raj Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ram Nath Thakur and Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal.
Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary was also present at the oath-taking.
JDU leader and party's working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, besides BJP MP and former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy and BJP chief whip in Lok Sabha Sanjay Jaiswal, were among those present during the oath-taking.
"Vice President of India and Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, administered the oath to Shri Nitish Kumar as an elected Member of Rajya Sabha, from Bihar, at Parliament House today," the Vice President's office said on X, while sharing pictures of the oath-taking.
After the oath-taking, Kumar came out of the new Parliament building and spoke about the time he was a member of the Lok Sabha and sat in the old Parliament building.
As Kumar assumes the Rajya Sabha role, it marks the end of his long two-decade rule in Bihar. Kumar will soon resign as chief minister and the NDA is likely to elect a new chief minister of Bihar on April 14.
He has already resigned as a member of the State Legislative Council on March 30 after he was elected to Rajya Sabha.
The JD(U) supremo was elected to the Upper House of Parliament on March 16, and he had to quit as an MLC in the 14-day period after his election.
