Supreme Court on Wednesday has dismissed a petition questioning the constituted three-member judicial commission headed by former apex court judge BS Chauhan comprising of two other members to probe the Vikas Dubey encounter case.
The bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde stated, “there were enough safeguards to ensure fair inquiry by the judicial panel into the encounter which took place in Kanpur.”
The ruling came while SC was hearing a plea filed by advocate Ghanshyam Upadhaya seeking re-constitution of the inquiry commission and substituting its members, Justice (retd) BS Chauhan, former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retd) Shashi Kant Agarwal and retired Uttar Pradesh DGP K L Gupta with some other former top court judge and retired DGPs.
The petitioner alleged that BS Chauhan’s brother is a legislator in Uttar Pradesh and his daughter is married to a Member of Parliament (MP).
Supreme Court bench also comprising of A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian on August 11, said, “it would not allow anyone to cast aspersions on the basis of media reports on the retired apex court judge heading the panel. “
The bench had pulled up the petitioner and questioned “whether a relative of a judge belonging to a political party, be termed as an illegal act”.
“There are judges whose father or brother or relatives are MPs. Are you (petitioner) saying that they all are biased judges? If any relative is belonging to a political party, is this an illegal act?” stated SC bench.
