While the Uttar Pradesh government is yet to submit its recommendations on a list of retired Supreme Court judges for a judicial commission to look into gangster Vikas Dubey’s ‘encounter’ killing by the police, advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay, on whose petition the top court has acted, has submitted his own list of 13 retired judges of the court for consideration.
The list includes names of two former Chief Justices – Justices TS Thakur and RM Lodha – as well as two who recently retired – Justices Deepak Gupta and R. Banumathi.
The applicant wants the court to consider the names he has submitted, instead of those that would be given by the state.
The application has been filed after the Supreme Court Bench comprising of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice AS Bopanna directed the State of Uttar Pradesh to draft a notification with a list of names of retired judges of the Supreme Court and names of retired police officers, for inclusion in the Judicial Commission.
The Application goes on to provide a list of names of retired Judges of the Supreme Court of “unimpeachable character”. The list includes former Chief Justices of India TS Thakur and RM Lodha, and former Justices Santosh Hegde, Anil R. Dave, Kurian Joseph, Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, MY Eqbal, AK Patnaik, Vikramjit Sen, KS Panicker Radhakrishnan, and HL Gokhale.
The list also includes recently retired Justices Deepak Gupta and R. Banumathi.
The application alleges that there is prima facie evidence that the encounter and the demolition of Dubey’s property took place in “furtherance of a well-orchestrated and articulate criminal conspiracy wherein not only top/higher police officers of UP Police, but also people on echelon of state administration are involved”.
The applicant has hence urged the court to ensure that the state administration is kept away from suggesting the names for members of the Judicial Commission and instead consider the names provided by the petitioner in the interest of justice, good conscience, equity and fair play.
A day before the encounter of Vikas Dubey, Ghanshyam Upadhyay had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking direction to safeguard the life of Vikas Dubey and ensure that that he is not killed/encountered by police and complete security arrangement is made for his safe production in the concerned court from time to time and he is dealt with in accordance with law.
However, the petition did not get listed before the Court on July 10. The court while hearing the matter yesterday (July 20) directed the State of UP to reconstitute their Judicial Commission and include a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as a Retired Police Officer of the rank of a DGP into the Commission.
– India Legal Bureau