Supreme Court to hear plea for SIT probe on lawyers today

The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a writ petition for a probe by a special investigation team into the contents of a sting operation conducted by two television channels exposing the role of three lawyers in the assault of JNU Students’ Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar when he was produced in the Patiala court on February 17.

A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Lalit fixed the date of hearing on a mention made by counsel Prashant Bhushan about the urgency of the matter which needs to be listed at the earliest. Advocate Kamini Jiswal, who has filed the writ petition which also seeks initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the three lawyers, Vikram Singh Chouhan, Yashpal Singh and O.P. Sharma. The petition said the immediate cause of filing this petition is the facts which have come to light about the blatant violation of the rule of law and also contempt on the face of the court committed by certain lawyers, including Respondents 3 to 5 in the Patiala House court premises and complete inaction of the Delhi police which has been exposed by the report of the supreme court appointed six member panel and the National Human Rights Commission and the sting operation conducted on February 22 by the channel.

The petition said the three lawyers have been shown saying that they had beaten up the accused Kanhaiya Kumar for three hours in the presence of the police personnel. In fact they are claiming that the police were not only supporting them but also appreciating their acts. The three lawyers have admitted that the attacks were not spontaneous but pre-planned and that they will repeat the same acts of violence when the accused Kankhaiya Kumar is produced in Patiala court again and their action calls for initiation of contempt proceedings, it said.