The Supreme Court on Friday expressed shock at a Punjab High Court order granting former State Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini protection from arrest in cases likely to be registered against him in future. “This is shocking and we feel such an order is unprecedented... How can it be that an order is passed that a person cannot be arrested in future cases... what is this?” Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, heading a three-judge Bench, observed.
The Punjab Advocate General D.S. Patwalia submitted that a single Judge had granted blanket protection against everything.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on caveat for the former top cop, said his client was a decorated police officer and a victim of the State government’s mala fide efforts to frame him in false cases.
“But this is an unprecedented order. How can future course of action be stayed? It is shocking...” the Bench made its displeasure clear.
The court said, considering the “peculiar facts” of the case, it would ask the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to assign the case to another Bench and dispose it of in two weeks. Meanwhile, the special leave petition in the apex court would remain pending.
The single Judge of the High Court had ordered that Mr. Saini should not be arrested till April 20 in various cases pending against him except one — the murder of Balwant Singh Multani, which is pending in the top court.
The Supreme Court on Thursday had granted Mr. Saini anticipatory bail in the Balwant Singh Multani disappearance case of 1991. In fact, the top court had in September the same year given him protection from arrest in the case.
The court had at the time questioned the Punjab government on its “hurry” to arrest Mr. Saini in a case dating back to 1991.
In 1991, Multani was picked up after an attack on Mr. Saini and three police officers. The three died and Mr. Saini was grievously injured. The police later claimed that Multani had escaped custody and disappeared. However, a murder charge was later added in the case after two of the accused policemen in the case turned approvers. A first information report (FIR) was registered against Mr. Saini on the basis of a compliant by Multani’s family.
