Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Supreme Court on Thursday successfully sought the adjournment of a review of a 2018 judgment, which let him off with a ₹1,000 fine in a nearly 34-year-old fatal road rage case.
A Special Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul rescheduled the case to February 25. The Punjab elections are due on February 20.
Mr. Sidhu's lawyers, senior advocate P. Chidambaram and A. Karthik, sought time to get further instructions from their client. They had sought an adjournment of four weeks. Mr. Chidambaram explained that he was asked to appear in the case only hours back and a new advocate-on-record was appointed.
Listing of case
Justice Khanwilkar, in turn, referred to a letter circulated by Mr. Sidhu's side seeking adjournment. The judge said it mentioned the case was listed "unexpectedly". The court clarified the case was not listed "unexpectedly" and was already mentioned in the weekly advance list of cases prepared by the court registry.
The court, however, did not entertain a request by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the family members of the man who died in the incident, to post the case in two weeks.
"The notice was issued in the case in September 2018... All this while you did not do anything, now you suddenly want to," the Bench asked.
The apex court acquitted Mr. Sidhu of culpable homicide in the case on May 2018. Instead, it found him guilty of the lesser offence of voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code. A review was filed against the judgment. The court issued notice on the review in September 2018.
‘No former enmity’
The May 2018 judgment, written by a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar (now retired), had then reasoned that the crime was three decades old and there had been no former enmity between Mr. Sidhu and his victim, Gurnam Singh. It had even said that roadside brawls were a “very common sight in this country”.
Justice Kaul was the puisne judge and part of the original Bench led by Justice Chelameswar that authored the 2018 judgment.
Mr. Sidhu may face a prison sentence of one year if the court decides to swap the ₹1,000 fine for a jail term under Section 323 IPC.
