Withdraw notices against Badals, Punjab govt tells HC

The Punjab government has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, asking it to withdraw notices against chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, issued on a petition filed by Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira.

The state government has informed the court that both the leaders were being impleaded in the case to gain political mileage.

Asking the court to withdraw the notices served on the Badals, the government has submitted that the petitioner (Khaira) was an aggrieved party in an order of a lower court and under no circumstances did they (Badals) have any role to play in either of the sections under which he and the other accused had been booked.

The high court has now issued a notice to Khaira on the application filed by the government.

Khaira’s petition

Earlier in May, Khaira and 12 other Congress workers had moved the court, seeking quashing of an FIR registered against them at Bholath Police Station in October 2008 for obstructing a public servant in discharge of duties.
The petitioners had also sought quashing of the subsequent legal proceedings against them at a Kapurthala court. They had made Bholath MLA Bibi Jagir Kaur, the chief minister and deputy chief minister respondents in their petition.

The issue

The FIR was registered when Bibi Jagir Kaur was to lay a foundation stone of the waterworks at Akbarpur village in October 2008. Hours before the function, Congress workers led by Khaira, the then local MLA, carried out a protest, allegedly to stop her from laying the foundation stone. The FIR was registered under sections 283, 186 and 188 of the IPC.

Khaira’s defence

Khaira, in his petition, had termed the FIR a result of political vendetta. He had claimed that he was being targeted since he was part of those seeking transfer of the murder case of Bibi Jagir Kaur’s daughter to the CBI and had also approached the Supreme Court seeking transfer of trial of the disproportionate assets case against Badals out of the state. Khaira had also submitted that the ‘bitter political tussle’ and ‘animosity’ between him and the Badals had started much before the case.