The Supreme Court adjourned the plea to re-examine its May 15, 2018 judgment whereby cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was let off with a meagre Rs 1000 fine in a 1988 road rage incident. The matter has been listed for further hearing on February 25, 2022.
A Special Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul adjourned the matter on the request of former Finance Minister and Senior Advocate P. Chidambaram as the AOR with the case had to withdraw and another AOR was engaged, only last time.
Justice Khanwilkar took strong exception to the letter circulated by the AOR mentioning that it is unexpectedly listed. Justice Khanwilkar said, “It is the incorrect statement. We are raising the objection here. It was already there in the Advance list.”
The petition had been filed by the relatives of the 65-year-old man, who was allegedly killed by Sidhu and his friend in December 1988.
The Supreme Court had made it clear in this case that the charge of culpable homicide will not be heard on Sidhu again.
The yesteryear cricketer and current president of Punjab Congress, is busy preparing for the state Assembly elections, scheduled to be held on February 20.
On May 15, 2018, the Apex Court had set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, convicting Sidhu of culpable homicide and awarding him a three-year jail term in the case. However, the top court of the country held Sidhu guilty of the offence of “voluntarily causing hurt” to a 65-year-old man and fined him Rs 1,000.
On September 2018, the Supreme Court had agreed to examine a review petition filed by the family members of the deceased and issued notice to Sidhu on it.
Sidhu and Sandhu had challenged the High Court’s 2006 judgment convicting them.
According to the prosecution, Sidhu and Sandhu were in a Gypsy parked in the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate Crossing in Patiala on December 27, 1988, when the victim and two others were on their way to the bank to withdraw money.
When they reached the crossing, it was alleged, Gurnam Singh, driving a Maruti car, found the Gypsy in the middle of the road and asked the occupants, Sidhu and Sandhu, to remove it. This led to heated exchanges.
Sidhu was acquitted of the murder charges by the trial court in September 1999.
However, the High Court had reversed the verdict and held Sidhu and Sandhu guilty under Section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC in December 2006.
It had sentenced them to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them.
The Supreme Court, while allowing the appeals of Sidhu and Sandhu, had said the medical evidence was “absolutely uncertain” regarding the cause of death of victim Gurnam Singh.
In 2007, the Supreme Court had stayed the conviction of Sidhu and Sandhu under Section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC in December 2006.
It had sentenced them to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each on them.