The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court dismissed as infructuous a petition seeking direction for constituting a judicial commission headed by a former/sitting Judge of the court to probe into the police encounter of Vikas Dubey by the UP Police Special Task Force Team on July 10. This dismissal was done after the bench was informed that the UP government had already constituted an SIT and a judicial commission for the purpose.
The bench comprising Justices Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal and Karunesh Singh Pawar was hearing a petition filed by advocate Nandita Bharti, seeking a probe into the alleged encounter in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Supreme Court in the case of PUCL & Anr vs State of Maharashtra and Ors.
The petitioner had also sought for the issuance of a direction against the respondents to frame appropriate guidelines governing, planning and carrying out encounters for the purpose of protection of life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
However, the Additional Advocate General appearing for the state informed the bench that the petitioner’s prayer for issuance of appropriate direction for constitution of judicial commission has been rendered infructuous, because on July 12, the State of UP, by a notification under Section 3 of the Enquiry Commission Act, 1952, has appointed Justice Sri Sashi Kant Agarwal, a former judge of this court, as head of the one-member Judicial Commission to enquire into the subject matter in question within a period of two months.
The bench, considering the fact that a Special Investigating Team and Judicial Commission have already been constituted by the State of UP to enquire into the alleged incident in question, dismissed the petition as withdrawn with liberty to file fresh petition, if the occasion arises.
– India Legal Bureau