<p>The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine if the Constitution permitted a person holding public office to make comments — in cases of rapes and murders — that has the potential to create distrust on fair investigation.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan framed the legal question while rapping Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan for terming the recent gang rape of a woman and her teenaged daughter in Bulandshahr district as a “political conspiracy”.<br /><br />“Why should people in power make such statements,” the bench asked, while hearing a plea made by the father of the girl for compensation and transfer of the investigation.<br /><br />“When a victim files an FIR charging rape, gang rape or murder or such other heinous offences against another person or group of persons, whether any individual holding a public office or a person in authority or in-charge of governance, should be allowed to comment on the crime stating that ‘it was an outcome of a political controversy’, more so, when as an individual, he has nothing to do with the offences in question,” the bench posed the query.<br /><br />The bench stayed the CBI probe, already ordered by the Allahabad High Court into the incident, and appointed senior advocate F S Nariman to assist the court in determining the issue if such statements did come within the ambit and sweep of freedom of speech and expression or exceeded the boundary.<br /></p>
<p>The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine if the Constitution permitted a person holding public office to make comments — in cases of rapes and murders — that has the potential to create distrust on fair investigation.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan framed the legal question while rapping Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan for terming the recent gang rape of a woman and her teenaged daughter in Bulandshahr district as a “political conspiracy”.<br /><br />“Why should people in power make such statements,” the bench asked, while hearing a plea made by the father of the girl for compensation and transfer of the investigation.<br /><br />“When a victim files an FIR charging rape, gang rape or murder or such other heinous offences against another person or group of persons, whether any individual holding a public office or a person in authority or in-charge of governance, should be allowed to comment on the crime stating that ‘it was an outcome of a political controversy’, more so, when as an individual, he has nothing to do with the offences in question,” the bench posed the query.<br /><br />The bench stayed the CBI probe, already ordered by the Allahabad High Court into the incident, and appointed senior advocate F S Nariman to assist the court in determining the issue if such statements did come within the ambit and sweep of freedom of speech and expression or exceeded the boundary.<br /></p>
