The Supreme Court on Monday directed Uttar Pradesh court, hearing a 23-year-old criminal case against Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala to provide him with a legible copy of the chargesheet in order to help him effectively argue his plea to discharge from the case.
The division Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath made it clear that it hasn’t made any comments on the merits of the case against Mr. Surjewala.
The Allahabad High Court recently declined to quash the case pending before the Varanasi court. The High Court allowed Mr. Surjewala to apply for discharge before the lower court and direct the lower court to decide it expeditiously within 6 weeks.
Therefore, it also directed that no coercive action should be taken against the Rajya Sabha MP for a period of 2 months or till the disposal of the discharge application, whichever is earlier.
The case dates back to 2000 when Mr. Surjewala, who was the then national president of the Youth Congress, was charged with allegedly creating a ruckus while protesting against the alleged false implication of Congress leaders in the Samvasini scandal at Varanasi.
Previously, Mr. Surjewala, represented by the senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, said he was neither served notice by the trial court in the case until August last year nor was he given a legible copy of the chargesheet to prepare his case for discharge.
Mr. Singhvi submitted that “I can only argue my case of discharge on the basis of the chargesheet.”
Therefore, at one point, Justice Nath orally observed that Mr. Surjewala wasn’t appearing in the case for 20 years.
The judge stated that “If the trial was delayed not because of you or had you been appearing in the case, it was liable to be quashed… That is not the case.” But Mr. Singhvi pointed out that he wasn’t served notice in the case until August 17 last year.
