The Supreme Court on Monday reprimanded the Punjab government and directed the state’s Advocate General to ensure that the government’s lawyers were present in the court. The apex court expressed displeasure over the frequent absence of the Punjab government lawyers and said that despite the issue of notices, the state panel lawyers were not appearing. The Supreme Court made a strong comment on this, saying that it has become a daily drama.
Strict court comment
Justice J.K. A bench of Maheshwari and Arvind Kumar made this comment when they were hearing the petition of the Punjab government, which challenged the bail given by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 10 August 2022 to Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
The court said, “Advocate General Saheb of Punjab, we had earlier called you in a case. The lawyers of the government in your state are not appearing despite the notice of government.
Advocate General apologizes, government asks for time
When the Punjab government sought more time, the Supreme Court postponed the hearing on their petition for two weeks. Meanwhile, Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh apologized to the court and assured that there would be no such mistake in future.
Majithia’s appearance in drugs case
In this case, the Supreme Court had already instructed Bikram Singh Majithia to appear at the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headquarters, Patiala. SIT is investigating the drug case against him. The Punjab government had alleged in the court that Majithia was not cooperating in the investigation.
Ever watching the decision of the High Court
Bikram Singh Majithia had described the case against him as a political conspiracy and demanded the court to decide the dates of questioning. The High Court had granted bail and said that “There is no concrete basis to assume that they are guilty of this crime”However, this comment was only in the context of the bail plea. The court directed the trial court to take action independently.
Case filed based on 2018 STF report
Bikram Singh Majithia had to stay in Patiala Jail for more than five months in this case. Majithia is the brother -in -law of Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. The case against him was registered on the basis of a report by the Anti-Drag Special Task Force (STF) set up in 2018. The report was based on the confessions given to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by the accused associated with the drug racket – Jagjit Singh Chahal, Jagdish Singh Bhola and Maninder Singh Aulakh.
