SC directs Sajjan Kumar to appear before AIIMS board

The Supreme Court Wednesday directed former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, serving life sentence in a case related to the 1984 anti-sikh riots, to appear before an AIIMS Board on Thursday to determine whether he needs to be hospitalised.

A bench comprising chief justice S A Bobde and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant directed Kumar to appear before the board 10.30 am.

The bench was hearing a bail application filed by Kumar on the ground of his medical condition.

"It appears that there is a certificate by Dr Randhir Sud, Chairman, Institute of Digestive & Hepatobiliary Sciences, Medanta-The Medicity, to the effect that Sajjan Kumar, who is the appellant, needs to be examined in order to rule out major illnesses and that he needs institutional care," the court observed.

It noted the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that Kumar was due for a medical examination at AIIMS according to the earlier report of AIIMS dated, December 10, 2019.

"We, accordingly, direct that Kumar be produced before the AIIMS Board on March 5, 2020 at 10.30 a.m. After examination the AIIMS Board shall decide whether hospitalization is necessary and whether such hospitalization is necessary in a particular hospital. They may also determine the duration for which the hospitalization may be necessary," the bench said.

It further directed that a report be submitted to the court within a period of one week from today.

"In the meanwhile, if the AIIMS Board consider it necessary to hospitalize Kumar, they may do so after recording reasons," the court said.

The bench had on February 14 refused to grant interim bail to Kumar and said it will hear his plea during the summer break.

Kumar, who sought bail on health grounds, was awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018, in the case.

The top court had on November 6 last year directed that the former Congress leader be examined by a panel of AIIMS doctors and a report be submitted to it on his health conditions.

On August 5, last year, the apex court said it would hear Kumar's bail plea in May 2020 as it was not an "ordinary case" and required detailed hearing before any order is passed.

Kumar resigned from the Congress after he was convicted by the high court.

The case in which he was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1-2 in 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

Anti-Sikh riots had broken out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.

Kumar has also challenged in the apex court the Delhi High Court's verdict of December 17 last year that awarded him life imprisonment for the "remainder of his natural life" in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The high court had convicted him for the offences of criminal conspiracy and abetment in commission of crimes of murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of communal harmony and defiling and destruction of a gurdwara.