The Supreme Court today appointed senior advocates Sanjay Hegde and Raju Ramchandran as amicus curiae and adjourned the Nirbhaya gang rape case to July 18.
During the hearing, the bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Kurian Joseph and V Gopala Gowda said, “We must express our concern that we would like to be assisted by two amicus, one for advocate AP Singh who is appearing for accused Vinay and Akshay and another for advocate M.L. Sharma who is representing Mukesh and Pawan.”
Sharma, on his part, urged the court to hear his arguments and appoint an amicus only after it feels the need to do so. The court, however, came down on Sharma, saying, “Sometimes bar may feel that judges are inadequate but it is not the case. Because of the brevity of issues involved, we feel that amicus must be appointed. You can’t stop us from appointing one.”
While hearing the matter on April 4, the court had directed the counsels, “We will hear it like a trial court and you can place on record whatever evidence you have. We will give you a patient hearing. Let time be consumed”