The Supreme Court on Monday protected Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia from arrest in a drug case till 23 February, taking note of the fact that the Punjab Assembly elections are going to take place on 20 February. The Court granted this relief to allow Majithia to do election campaigning.
The Bench—which had earlier restrained the State of Punjab from taking any coercive action against Majithia till 31 January—asked the SAD leader to surrender before the trial court on 23 February. It directed the trial court to hear and decide his bail plea expeditiously after his surrender in the drugs case.
“Sorry to say this, suddenly these cases are coming up before elections and everybody has reasons to suspect some motives…We are in a democracy…We are not saying hold your hands and not control drug mafias. But let the elections take place on 20 February…At least allow the candidates to file nominations and contest elections,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana told senior counsel P Chidambaram, representing the Punjab government.
“Mr Chidambaram, please advise your state that it should not look like you are taking motivated actions…,” the CJI said, adding that the bail plea of another political leader from Punjab would come up for hearing on Tuesday.
“As far as this matter is concerned, this was under the monitoring of the high court for long. But the investigation got delayed when the other party was in power till 2017…With respect to other matters, I will advise the government not to take any vindictive action,” Chidambaram told the Bench.
Earlier, on behalf of Majithia, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, termed it a “Classic case of political vendetta” as the FIR was registered on 20 December last year on the directions of the acting DGP with respect to offences during 2004-2015.
“I don’t know if this is election fever or election virus. Everyone is rushing to the court now…Is this fair, Mr Chidambaram?” the CJI had said last week.
Apprehending his arrest in connection with the case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act registered at Mohali on 20 December last year, Majithia had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s 24 January order rejecting his anticipatory bail plea. The HC had, however, granted him protection from coercive action for three days to enable him to approach the Supreme Court.
“The present case is blatantly political in nature and has been registered with a mala fide objective to target the petitioner, who is a mainstream leader of the opposition party, one month prior to polls in the state,” Majithia had submitted.
