Leader of Opposition had challenged the legality of the commission
High court issued notice to the state government and commission and sought answers
A new commission cannot be formed for the matter which has been investigated.
Bilaspur:The High Court has stayed the hearing and proceedings of the new commission constituted by the state government for investigating of the Jhiram Ghati incident of Chhattisgarh.
The Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Dharamlal Kaushik, had challenged the legality of setting up a new commission in the High Court. While hearing the matter, Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice RCS Samant issued notices to the state government and the commission seeking their reply. The next hearing of the case will now be held on July 4.
On Wednesday, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani of the Supreme Court along with advocate Vivek Sharma presented the arguments in this matter. They told the court that the commission of Justice Prashant Mishra has completed the investigation and submitted the report to the government, which was to be placed in the Assembly within six months. But, the government has constituted a new commission without making the report of Justice Mishra public. In the petition, Kushiktermed the process of formation of the commission as illegal.
Demand to dissolve new commission
About five months back, the state government formed the new commission comprising of retired Justice Sunil Agnihotri and Justice Minhajuddin. Meanwhile the petition filed on behalf of Kaushik demanded to place the inquiry report of Justice Prashant MishraCommission in the assembly and make it public. At the same time, it has also been demanded that a new commission cannot be formed to re-investigate the matter which has been investigated by the commission. Therefore, the new commission should be dissolved.
It is worth noting that in the year 2013, a Parivartan rally was organised across the state under the leadership of the then state president of Congress Nand Kumar Patel in Chhattisgarh. Parivartan Rally took place in Sukma on May 25 2013. After the rally was over, the convoy of Congress leaders had left from Sukma to Jagdalpur and on the way they had to confront with a deadly naxal attack. Senior Congress leaers Nandkumar Patel, his son Dinesh Patel, Mahendra Karma, Vidyacharan Shukla, UdayMudaliar were killed in the attack. As many as 29 people died in this incident.
