The Delhi High Court on Thursday stayed a lower court order here allowing the Delhi police to conduct a narco-analysis test on Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy.
Staying the order, Justice Indermeet Kaur, also issued a notice, returnable on November 14, to the city police seeking their reply to a petition filed by Ghandy challenging the scientific and Constitutional validity of the test.
The Court passed the order on Ghandy’s petition when his counsel submitted that his client could not be subjected to the test unless the Supreme Court decided the Constitutional validity of the test.
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A Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court had reserved judgment on a petition challenging the Constitutional and scientific validity of the test.
Ghandy in his petition submitted that the trial court’s order was unlawful as the police had not taken prior permission from his client to undergo the test.
He submitted that an accused could not be compelled to self-incriminate him or her.
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The trial court had on October 31 allowed the Delhi police to conduct the test on Ghandy allowing the submission that they had to conduct the test to get vital information from him as so far he had not told them much about his activities.
The trial court had seen the medical report submitted by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences declaring Ghandy fit to undergo the test before passing the order.