The matter came up for hearing before a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and SK Kaul which posted it for hearing on 25 February in view of the letter circulated by Navjot Sidhu’s counsel seeking adjournment
File image of Navjot Singh Sidhu. PTI
The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on a petition seeking review of its 2018 order which let off Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu with a fine of Rs 1,000 in an over 32-year-old road rage case.
A Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar adjourned the hearing after senior advocate P Chidambaram said on Sidhu’s behalf that the advocate-on-record in the case had changed and he needed time to file reply to the review petition, The Tribune reported.
The bench said it would hear the matter on 25 February.
Why is the cricketer-turned-politician on the wrong side of the law, what is the 1988 road rage case, let’s take a look at it:
What happened in 1988
– On 27 December, 1988, Sidhu and his aide Rupinder Singh Sandhu were in a Gypsy parked in the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate Crossing in Patiala, while a 65-year-old Gurnam Singh along with two others was on his way to the bank.
– It is alleged that the victim asked Sidhu and Sandhu to remove their car from the crossing, which led to an altercation between them.
– Gurnam Singh later died soon after being beaten up by Sidhu. The Congress leader, however, claimed that Singh died of a cardiac arrest.
– Sidhu and his friend Sandhu were initially charged for murder, but the trial court acquitted them. Giving Sidhu the benefit of doubt, the trial court in Patiala had on 22 September, 1999, acquitted him and his cousin, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, saying the medical report stated that the death was due to a heart attack.
– However, the same was challenged by the Punjab government and the victim’s families before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had in 2006, convicted and sentenced Sidhu to three years’ imprisonment.
– The high court held Sidhu and co-accused RS Sandhu guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
– The duo challenged the High Court verdict in the Supreme Court, which held that Sidhu was wrongly convicted of culpable homicide. The apex court in 2007 stayed the conviction after Sidhu’s counsel contended that the findings of the high court were based on opinions and not medical evidence.
– The apex court’s May 2018 verdict had come on the appeal filed by Sidhu and Sandhu challenging the high court’s 2006 judgement convicting them.
– In its 2018 verdict, the top court reasoned that the case was more than 30 years old and there was no past enmity between the accused and the victim.
– A bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul had issued a notice to the Punjab Congress chief in September 2018 after a review petition was filed by the family members of the man who lost his life in the road rage incident.
– The Supreme Court had on 12 September, 2018 agreed to consider a petition filed by the family of the deceased seeking review of its 15 May, 2018 order imposing a fine of Rs 1,000 on Sidhu in the case.
With inputs from agencies
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