The top court has today refused to entertain a batch of petitions which sought an inquiry into the violence during the farmers’ tractor rally held in the national capital, on 26 January (Republic Day).
Advocate Vishal Tiwari representing the petitioner sought for setting up a three-member inquiry commission under the chairmanship of a former apex court judge and comprising of two retired high court judges for collecting and recording evidence and submit a report on the January 26 violence to the top court in a time-bound manner. He has also sought direction from the concerned authority to lodge FIRs against individuals or organizations responsible for the violence and causing dishonor of the National Flag on January 26.
Tiwari contended that on January 26 ‘unfortunate incident happened; blames are on both sides but people suffered’. The petitions also sought for issuing directions to the media not to declare farmers as ‘terrorists’ without any evidence.
However, the bench comprising of Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, Justices A S Bopanna, and V Ramasubramanian refused to hear the pleas while directing the petitioners to approach the government with their pleas and make representation there.
“We are sure that the government is inquiring into this and taking action. We heard in the press where the Prime Minister said that law will take its own course, we do not want to interfere in it. You can approach the government,” the Chief Justice said.
When Chief Justice said that the government is inquiring about the issue, Tiwari said let not the probe be one-sided. To this, the Chief Justice replied, “Your prayer is based on the fact that it is going to be one-sided. What is an investigation? It has to take all sides into account.”
Further, the court also dismissed two other PILs wherein one of them sought for protection of common men and police officers during the protests. The bench said that the same order is issued in the other cases.
