NEW DELHI: The Haryana government has moved the Supreme Court and filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the Punjab and High Court's order of directing a setting up a judicial inquiry panel into the alleged death of a protesting farmer, Shubhkaran Singh.
The 21-year-old farmer, a native of Bhatinda, died on February 21 on the Punjab-Haryana border at Khanauri during a violent clash between the protesting farmers and the State police personnel.
He was unfortunately caught in the violent clash and subsequently died when some protesting farmers were allegedly trying to move towards the barricades and broke it and they were stopped by security personnel from crossing the state border and marching to Delhi.
The SLP was filed by the Haryana govt on March 11, as per the case details available on the Supreme Court's website.
Sources in the Supreme Court registry and staff, talking to this Newspaper, said that the SLP of the Haryana govt would likely be taken up for hearing after the Holi vacation, after March 31, as there were some defects in the petition. But the matter is sensitive, so most likely, the SC would list it for hearing as soon as possible.
The Punjab & Haryana HC's Acting Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji had passed the order of directing a setting up a three-member judicial inquiry panel headed by retired HC judge Jaishree Thakur to probe into the various aspects of the case.
It had in its order said that the probe could not be entrusted solely either to Punjab or to Haryana for “reasons obvious as both states have several things to cover up”.
The three-member committee also comprised two officers namely; Parmod Ban, ADGP (Additional Director General, Police) Punjab, and Amitabh Singh Dhillon, ADGP, Haryana, besides the retd HC Judge, Justice Thakur, the HC said, in its order.
The SLP, filed by the Haryana govt, sought the issuance of directions to the Centre and State to place on record before the SC the complete data on the particular area concerning tear gas shells, pellet guns, etc, and to ascertain and find out "whether the force used by the police forces on their countrymen is reasonable, indiscriminate and inhuman. Under what circumstances, the sad situation arise, the plea said.