Approach probe agency, High Court to petitioner
Chandigarh, December 15
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that Barrister-at-Law Himmat Singh Shergill could move the investigating agency for action against the Badals in the transport policy case.
Disposing of a petition filed by Shergill alleging manipulation in the transport policy to drive private bus operators towards profits, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Surya Kant asserted: “We decline to entertain this public interest litigation in the present form and deem it appropriate to close the same by grant of liberty to the petitioner to approach the investigating agency for redress of his grievance and, thereafter, to approach the Court if he has any subsisting grievance in the matter".
Going into the reasons behind issuing the directions, the Bench asserted: “We will like to put on record, at the very outset, that we find it difficult to entertain this public interest litigation.
“If respondents number one and two (Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister) have committed any wrong, while in office, which has injured the public exchequer and has benefited their own interests, the petitioner should have taken recourse to the remedy available under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, rather than approaching the Court by way of this public interest litigation seeking directions for registration of a criminal case and investigation of the same.
“If a criminal act has been occasioned, the affected party or any interested party is expected to approach the investigating agency by filing a FIR, instead of seeking orders from the Court by means of a public interest litigation. The role of the Court in such matters is extremely limited. By way of illustration, persistent refusal by the investigating agency to act in the matter or to carry out an investigation in a fair and proper manner may justify an approach to the Court and its intervention”.
According to the petitioner, such investigation should be in respect of the information available in the news-items published in The Tribune, details of which are available in the writ petition.
Chandigarh, December 15
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that Barrister-at-Law Himmat Singh Shergill could move the investigating agency for action against the Badals in the transport policy case.
Disposing of a petition filed by Shergill alleging manipulation in the transport policy to drive private bus operators towards profits, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Surya Kant asserted: “We decline to entertain this public interest litigation in the present form and deem it appropriate to close the same by grant of liberty to the petitioner to approach the investigating agency for redress of his grievance and, thereafter, to approach the Court if he has any subsisting grievance in the matter".
Going into the reasons behind issuing the directions, the Bench asserted: “We will like to put on record, at the very outset, that we find it difficult to entertain this public interest litigation.
“If respondents number one and two (Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister) have committed any wrong, while in office, which has injured the public exchequer and has benefited their own interests, the petitioner should have taken recourse to the remedy available under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, rather than approaching the Court by way of this public interest litigation seeking directions for registration of a criminal case and investigation of the same.
“If a criminal act has been occasioned, the affected party or any interested party is expected to approach the investigating agency by filing a FIR, instead of seeking orders from the Court by means of a public interest litigation. The role of the Court in such matters is extremely limited. By way of illustration, persistent refusal by the investigating agency to act in the matter or to carry out an investigation in a fair and proper manner may justify an approach to the Court and its intervention”.
According to the petitioner, such investigation should be in respect of the information available in the news-items published in The Tribune, details of which are available in the writ petition.
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