JOIN US1988 Sidhu road rage case: SC defers hearing
The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred hearing a matter, related to re-examining its May 15, 2018 judgement, which spared Punjab Congress chief and cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu with just Rs 1000 fine in a road rage incident.
A special bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul adjourned the hearing to February 25 on a request made by senior advocate P Chidambaram on behalf of Sidhu.
The counsel claimed the review petitions were listed for hearing unexpectedly.
He also said a new advocate-on-record has been engaged and he was informed about the hearing late last night only.
The bench, however, pointed out the matter was notified much earlier and the notice was issued in September, 2018 but the he has not filed his as yet.
"Two weeks are crucial for him on a lighter side," the bench said.
Punjab is set for Assembly polls on February 20, where Sidhu is pitching himself as a strong Chief Ministerial candidate.
Notably, the court had in September 2018 issued notice to Sidhu only on the issue of quantum of sentence in the case where a 65-year-old had died after receiving a fist blow by Sidhu in 1988.
On May 15, 2018, a bench of Justices J Chelameswar (since retired) and Kaul had convicted Sidhu of milder offence of causing voluntarily hurt under Section 323 of the IPC.
The punishment for the offence carried maximum jail term upto one year, or with fine, which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.
The court merely imposed a Rs 1,000 fine on Sidhu. It had let him off of grave charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The court had then looked into circumstances like the incident was of 30-year-old, there was no past enmity between the accused and deceased, Gurnam Singh, and no weapon was used by Sidhu, to arrive its conclusion.
The court had then declined to consider a plea made on behalf of complainant Jaswinder Singh, who accompanied the deceased in the car on the fateful date on December 27, 1988 in Patiala, that the state went out of its way to shield the accused because of his celebrity status.
It had also rejected a plea to consider a CD of an interview of Sidhu allegedly proving him guilty.
The court had then set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement on an appeal filed by Sidhu and his co-accused Rupinder Singh Sandhu.
The high court had then convicted them of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, reversing their acquittal by the trial court.
The top court had let off Sandhu.
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