Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 12: The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed its former judge Indu Malhotra to head the five-member committee to inquire into the alleged breach in security of the prime minister Narendra Modi when he was on a visit to Punjab on January 5.
The security breach had led the prime minister’s motorcade to be stranded on a flyover for about 20 minutes because some protesters had blocked the other end of the flyover. The impasse had forced Modi to cancel his scheduled address to the BJP workers at Ferozepur and return to Bathinda airport to take the flight back to Delhi.
On Wednesday, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and also included Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli told the Indu Malhotra committee to submit its confidential report to the apex court at the earliest.
Apparently agreeing with the earlier pleading by the Punjab advocate general DS Patwalia, the bench said the matter “cannot be left to one-sided enquiries” and that it must be looked into by a judicially trained mind to submit a comprehensive report for the consideration of the court.”
The others on the committee included those about the CJI had earlier given hints. They include the Director-General of National Investigation Agency or his nominee not below the rank of Inspector-General, the Director-General of Police of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the Additional Director-General of Police (Security) of Punjab and the Registrar-General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
With the taking over of the investigation by the apex court-appointed committee, both the earlier inquiry committees appointed by the Punjab government and he central government would have to stop their respective proceedings. The court had earlier got the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s Registrar-General to seize the security records in connection with the January 5 incident.
Both the Centre and Punjab had blamed each other of bias. Poll-bound Punjab had accused the Centre of trying to pile the entire blame of the lapse on it which reflected from the fact that it had summonsed the top police and bureaucratic officials of the Punjab government to Delhi seeking their “explanations within 24 hours for the lapse in the PM’s security arrangements.
Taking note of it, the Supreme Court said, “We are of the considered opinion that the questions [regarding the breach] cannot be resolved through one-sided inquiries. A judicial trained and independent mind duly assisted by officers well-acquainted with the security considerations and the Registrar-General of the High Court, who has seized the records pursuant to our orders, will be best suited to look into all the issues and submit a confidential report for the consideration of this court,” Chief Justice Ramana read out from the order.
The terms of reference of the Justice Indu Malhotra Committee include finding out the causes of the breach; the persons responsible and to what extent; remedial measures to improve the security of the Prime Minister and other protectees; and any other recommendations for the security of constitutional functionaries.
Patwalia, in an earlier court hearing, had highlighted the State’s apprehensions it would not get a fair hearing. He had submitted that show-cause notices had already been issued by the Centre to its officers, mentioning disciplinary action against them for the security lapse.
Patwalia had 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 had requested the court.
Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, had countered there had been a “complete intelligence failure” on the part of the State. Besides, he had 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 had emphasised. It was evident that the centre was moving with the resumption that the Punjab authorities were responsible for the allege security breach and need to be punished much before the committee appointed by it investigated into the matter and submitted its report.
On Wednesday, the court asked the High Court Registrar General to hand over all the records to Justice Indu Malhotra. The court had on January 10 reserved orders on a plea by Delhi-based ‘Lawyer’s Voice’ which sought a probe into the security breach and action against the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, Punjab for the security lapse.