On 11th January, 2022 the Supreme Court heard the petition filed by Param Bir Singh, former Mumbai Police Commissioner against the Mumbai Police for taking coercive steps in the cases registered against him. The Court stated that the scenario is very disturbing as Param Bir Singh has stated trust issues in the investigation and fears that there will be no pre-emption.
In December, the once Head of Police had been arrested in response to the FIR filed against him in the alleged extortion case and the accused has recently filed a petition in the Supreme Court for either quashing the FIR against him or giving the case to Central Bureau of Investigation for a fair enquiry.
The state of Maharashtra has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the Order of High Court of Bombay according to which the request for creating a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for looking into the allegations levied against the Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, however, the Court did not accept the request and adjourned the matter.
The Court had directed a stay on the Former Police Commissioner’s arrest and the matter was listed to be heard after three weeks. Furthermore, the Court has ordered that the accused should cooperate in the investigation.
The Special Leave Petition filed by the accused has been adjourned by the Apex Court Bench consisting of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh stating that the there is no such proof of the police hindering the CBI from investigating the case.
The Supreme Court had issued notice to the CBI and the organization filed an affidavit in reply which stated that there are certain problems which are being faced in the case.
SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT:
Supreme Court says that it will take a call on whether the FIRs lodged by Maharashtra police against Param Bir Singh be handed over to CBI or not and asked the state government to keep its hands off from those cases till it decides the issue.
On 11th January 2022 the Court had deferred consideration to what view the court would take in the Special Leave Petition. It was expected that the state government would make all endeavours to see that all objections would be removed but it has not happened.
Counsel for the state stated that SLP is in limited domain & should not impede hearing of present matter. The Court considered it appropriate to proceed with the matter finally.
Listed on 9th March’ 2022 upon joint request of parties for final disposal in Miscellaneous Matters.
