13.11.2021 (Saturday,
New Delhi)
On Lakhimpur Farmers' Killing, Supreme Court Gives UP A
Monday Deadline
Lakhimpur Kheri Case: The Supreme Court had asked the UP
government to inform about its stand on the suggestion of monitoring of the
Lakhimpur probe by a former judge of a different high court.
New Delhi: The Supreme
Court on Friday granted time till November 15 to the Uttar Pradesh government
for apprising its stand on the suggestion that a former judge of a
"different high court" should monitor the state SIT probe on
day-to-day basis in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people
including four farmers were killed on October 3.
"Would your
Lordships give me time till Monday? I have almost got it done. We are working
something out," senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the UP government,
told the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana.
"List on
Monday," said the bench which, also comprised Justices Surya Kant and Hima
Kohli, acceding to the request.
The Supreme Court, on
November 8, had expressed dissatisfaction over the probe and suggested that to
infuse "independence, impartiality and fairness" in the ongoing
investigation, a former judge of a "different high court" should monitor
it on day-to-day basis.
The bench had also said
that it has no confidence and does not want the one-member judicial commission
appointed by the state to continue probe into the case.
Retired Allahabad High
Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava was named by the state government
to enquire into the eruption of violence on Tikonia-Banbirpur road in Lakhimpur
Kheri district.
The state government
was asked to inform about its stand on the suggestion of monitoring of probe by
a former judge of a different high court.
"We, somehow or
the other, are not confident and we do want any judicial commission appointed
by your state government to continue," the bench had said.
Observing that the
investigation was not going the way it expected, the bench had red flagged some
of the issues pertaining to the SIT probe conducted so far and said:
"prima facie it appears that one particular accused (in the farmers'
mowing down case) is sought to be given benefit" by securing or procuring
evidence from witnesses in the subsequent case related to the lynching of
political activists by the farmers'' mob."