The Supreme Court on September 14 will pronounce its judgment on a plea by former space scientist Nambi Narayanan to prosecute senior police officials for framing him in the notorious ISRO spy scandal .
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra would likely deal with the question of enhanced compensation to be paid to Mr. Narayanan in its verdict.
The hearings had seen an interesting turn of events on July 10, when the apex court reserved the case for judgment, when the CBI had said it had “nothing to hide”. The agency, which took over the probe from the State Police and filed a closure report in 1996, even invited the court to launch a probe into the its conduct in the case.
Mr. Narayanan has accused the Kerala Police and the IB of torturing and extracting statements from him.
The State of Kerala had filed an affidavit saying it was willing to unconditionally abide by whatever the apex court orders. The court said it would adopt an impartial stand in the issue.
In his petition, Mr. Narayanan, who was discharged in the case, had arraigned as parties former Kerala ADGP Siby Mathews, the State government, K.K. Joshwa and S. Vijayan, both of whom had retired in senior position in the police.
The former ISRO scientist, who is in seventies, had approached the apex court after a Division Bench of the State High Court refused his plea.
In his petition, Mr. Narayanan, represented by advocate K.B.S Rajan, has contended that the High Court “failed to appreciate the real undercurrent that passed through the mind of the apex court, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the single judge of the High court in their verdict and on untenable reasons, quashed the order of the single judge.”
Challenging the legality of the High Court Division Bench order, Mr. Narayanan said it was “bad in law”.
He had argued that the order “would only encourage the unlawful action and mindset on the part of the Kerala police to harass innocent persons for extraneous considerations”.
The apex court in 1998 had directed the State government to pay cost of ₹1 lakh to Mr. Narayanan who was discharged in the case.
Later, Mr. Narayanan approached NHRC claiming compensation against the State government for mental agony and torture suffered by him. The NHRC, after hearing both sides and taking into account the apex court judgment of April 29, 1998, had awarded him an interim compensation of ₹10 lakh on March 14, 2001.
