NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the trial in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, in which Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra’s son Ashish is among those facing prosecution, is not “slow-paced” and directed the concerned sessions judge to keep apprising it about the future developments of the trial.
The remark was made by a bench of Justice Surya Kant and JK Maheshwari. “We are receiving reports regularly from the trial Judge. Some witnesses have been examined partly. Cross-examination took place in part,” the bench had remarked.
The report was submitted in compliance with SC’s January 25 order which it had passed in the bail application filed by Mishra. While granting Mishra interim bail of eight weeks SC had directed the lower court to submit the progress of the report of the trial to it after every date of hearing with details of witnesses examined on each date.
The court on Tuesday also directed for a continuation of its interim order. For Mishra, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi submitted that his client has been attending all the hearings pursuant to the grant of bail.
Although advocate Prashant Bhushan expressed concerns with regard to the pace at which the trial was proceeding, the bench said, “We can assure you that trial is not slow-paced.”
The court also said that it in future might withdraw its order when the trial is on the right path & the proceedings are continuing “smoothly” but right now the same was required.
Also in the top court
‘Thackeray faction wanted Speaker to usurp powers of EC’
The ruling Eknath Shinde camp in Maharashtra told the SC on Tuesday the rival side led by Uddhav Thackeray wanted the Speaker of the state assembly to “usurp” the powers of the Election Commission when the floor test was ordered by the Governor during the 2022 political crisis. Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for the Shinde bloc, told a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that a nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had in its 1994 verdict said a floor test is the litmus test of democracy and a chief minister cannot shy away from it.
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Plea to challenge ‘special class’ of advocates
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