The Bombay Lawyers Association on Friday filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court against the CBI’s decision not to challenge a lower court order discharging BJP president Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case.
The PIL urged the HC to issue a direction to the CBI to file a revision application challenging the sessions court’s order. The petitioner’s lawyer Ahmad Abidi said the plea will be mentioned before a Division Bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Bharti Dangre on January 22.
“The CBI is a premier investigating agency. It has public duty to observe the rule of law in its action, but it has miserably failed,” the petition said.
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The PIL said that the trial court had similarly discharged two Rajasthan police sub inspectors, Himanshu Singh and Shyam Singh Charan, and senior Gujarat police officer N.K. Amin in the case. “The petitioner has learnt that the CBI has challenged their discharge before the HC. This act of the CBI in challenging discharge of the accused on selective basis is arbitrary, unreasonable, and rather malafide.”.
It also claimed that the Supreme Court, while transferring the trial from Gujarat to Mumbai, had ordered that it be concluded expeditiously. “The SC had said the administrative committee of the HC will assign the case to a court where the trial may be concluded judiciously, and without any delay. The committee will also ensure that the trial should be conducted from beginning to end by the same officer,” it said.