SC seeks Navjot Singh Sidhu's reply on plea seeking to enlarge scope of notice in road rage case
Feb 25, 2022
New Delhi [India], February 25 : The Supreme Court on Friday asked Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu to file a reply on an application seeking to enlarge the scope of the notice in connection with the 1988 road rage case.
A special bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul listed the matter after two weeks for further hearing.
Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra urged SC to enlarge the scope of notice since it was limited on the aspect of quantum of sentence.
The petitioner filed a fresh application where it was stated that the notice may not be limited to the quantum of sentence, but the review petition should be heard to correct the errors on the face of the record and lay down the correct principle of law.
"That the impugned judgment contradicts the settled position of law that if a person receives injuries and is admitted in hospital because of those injuries and suffers from some other disease (in this case alleged heart attack), and the victim subsequently dies; even in those cases, the accused persons are guilty of an offence falling clearly within the ambit of Section 299 IPC," the application read.
The application further read that the impugned judgment and order renders Section 299 IPC redundant since it sets a precedent that in case a person received injuries and consequently dies due to the same it will
not amount to an offence falling within the ambit of Section 299 IPC and would rather be an offence under Section 323 IPC.
"Enlarge the scope of the notice issued vide order dated September 11, 2018 in the present Review Petition and hear the petition as a whole," the petitioner urged.
Senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Sidhu, said that he would request for no enlargement and restrict to the original notice, but if arguments are needed then he has to file a reply.
Earlier in response to the review petition, Sidhu urged the Supreme Court not to punish him any further in a three-decades-old case and said that the review petition in the road rage case against him is without merit and ought to be dismissed.
The family of the 1988 road rage case victim had filed a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking a modification of its earlier order in which the Punjab MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu was acquitted.
Sidhu was acquitted in connection with the culpable homicide charges but was convicted of the offence of voluntarily causing hurt in an order given by the apex court. The court had slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on Sidhu. The court had also acquitted Sidhu's associate, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, in the case.
The case has gone through Session Court, High court and Supreme Court.
The Sessions Court Judge of Patiala had on September 22, 1999, acquitted Sidhu and his associate, due to lack of evidence in the case and giving the benefit of the doubt.
It was then challenged by the victim's families before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had in 2006, convicted and sentenced Sidhu to three years imprisonment. Sidhu then filed an appeal before the apex court challenging this order.
On December 27, 1988, Sidhu had allegedly beaten Gurnam Singh on his head, leading to his death.
