Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 10: Agreeing with the Punjab Government’s arguments that the centre had already held the state police “guilty” without giving a hearing, the Supreme Court on Monday decided to form a committee to be headed by a retired judge of the apex court for an independent and time-bound inquiry into the alleged security breach during the prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on January 5.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana said its committee would submit a report within a specified time after examining the records on the security arrangements, which have already been seized by the Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court as per its orders on January 7.
The Court asked both the BJP-ruled centre and the Congress government in Punjab to hold the ongoing probes they had ordered. The bench of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli added that detailed orders regarding the new panel would be issued soon.
The top court also indicated that both the centre and the Punjab government would have to ask their respective committees to stop the inquiry proceedings. Both the centre and the Punjab government had appointed different committees soon after the incident to probe into the matter.
The court indicated that the High Court’s Registrar-General, along with the officers who helped him seize and protect the documents, who include the DGP, Chandigarh, and IG, National Investigation Agency, would be part of the committee.
There would be another member in the committee. Punjab has suggested its Additional DGP (Security) as an alternative.
Punjab’s Advocate-General D.S. Patwalia, at the start of the hearing, said the State feared it would not get a fair hearing if the centre-appointed committee was allowed to continue with the investigation. It said show-cause notices had already been issued by the Centre to its officers, mentioning disciplinary action against them for the security lapse concerning the PM’s convoy on January 5.
The Advocate-General, however, said the show cause notices indicated that the Centre already considered Punjab’s police officers prima facie guilty of violating their obligations towards the Prime Minister’s security. This had been arrived at without any evidence or records, all of which had been already seized on the orders of the Supreme Court, Patwalia indicated.
The court asked the Centre why the judiciary had been asked to intervene if the government had “presumed everything” already.
“The impression you give is that you have presumed everything… Then why should the court go into all this?” the Bench asked. At one point, Justice Surya Kant said the show cause notices seemed “self-contradictory.” Rapping the centre, Justice Surya Kant asked, “Who held the officials guilty? Who has heard them? You cannot be against a fair hearing.” Justice Kohli said it is “not expected” of the centre to ask the officials to reply within 24 hours.
Justice Kant said there may have been some lapse, but who was responsible for that had to be found on the basis of the facts.
“If you want to take disciplinary action, what is left for this court to do?” the CJI asked the Centre, before conveying the decision to form the inquiry panel led by a former Supreme Court judge. Patwalia said all the State wanted from the Supreme Court was an opportunity for a fair hearing before a neutral committee. “If I am guilty, please hang me and my officers, but give me a fair hearing,” Patwalia requested the court.
He said the Punjab government gave the issue of the Prime Minister’s security the utmost importance and wanted a full and comprehensive inquiry into any security breach that may have happened on January 5.
Appearing for the centre, the solicitor general Tushar Mehta countered that the show cause notices were issued before the top court hearing on January 7. He said there had been a “complete intelligence failure” on the part of the State. He said the state government had provided no information to the PM’s security detail that there were protesters on the route. Besides, he submitted, it was an admitted fact that there had been a security lapse in violation of the Special Protection Group Act and the ‘Blue Book’.
“When there is a complete breach, there is no question of hearing. Officers responsible are served with notice. There is an admitted fact of breakage. This is a rarest of rare case. It cannot brook any delay,” Mehta emphasised. The central government, he said, had to form a probe panel as the state government is “defending” police officers responsible for the lapse.
Hitting back, Patwalia said the showcause notice to the Punjab chief secretary “premediates and assumes everything against us”. “Twenty four hours given for reply, I don’t expect a fair hearing at all. There needs to be an independent probe,” he told the court.
A massive row broke out after the Prime Minister’s convoy had to be stopped for about 20 minutes on a flyover in Punjab’s Bathinda as the road was blocked by protesting farmers. Modi had to return to Delhi cancelling his BJP rally at Ferozepur due to the blockade. Blaming the Charanjit Singh Channi government, Union minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani accused the Congress of a “a murderous conspiracy to kill the PM.”
The Congress hit back, saying the Prime Minister’s travel plans were tweaked at the last moment. The party also accused the BJP of raking up the security lapse to cover up the embarrassment of thin crowds at a rally to be addressed by the Prime Minister. Channi has also stressed that there was no danger to the Prime Minister and said he was ready to die to protect the Prime Minister.
