SC Imposes 10K On Former IPS Officer For Challenging HC Order Setting Deadline In Drug Seizure Case

The Supreme Court on Monday imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on former IPS officer for challenging Gujarat High Court order which set a deadline for the trial in drug seizure case.

A division bench of Justice BR Gavai and Aravind Kumar dismissed a petition filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging a Gujarat High Court order which set a deadline for the trial in an alleged drug planting case in which he is an accused.

The Gujarat High Court has ordered that the trial to be conclude by March 31, 2023.

The bench dismissed Bhatt’s petition as “frivolous” and imposed a fee of Rs. 10,000, which must be paid to the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority.

“The parties in a criminal trial should be more interested in the expeditious disposal of the trial……The grant of extension of time is a matter between the trial court and high court”, the bench noted in the order.

Appearing for Bhatt, Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat took exception to the High Court issuing a peremptory direction, despite the trial judge’s estimate that 6 months more time is required.

 He submitted that only 16 out of 60 witnesses have been examined.

The senior advocate contended that the trial court is not taking the petitioner’s applications into consideration because of the time imposed by the High Court. It was claimed that as a result, the petitioner’s right to a fair trial was being violated.

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing on behalf of the State of Gujarat, opposed Bhatt’s application.

He emphasised that the current High Court order is a continuation of a previous order issued in October 2021. The Supreme Court dismissed the challenge to the previous order. Singh claimed that the petitioner hid the dismissal of the first SLP in the current petition.

Bhatt filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in April 2011 charging then-Chief Minister Narendra Modi of involvement in the riots of 2002.

He asserted to have been present in a meeting called by the then-CM, Mr. Modi, on February 27, 2002, where it was purportedly ordered that the State Police not pursue criminal charges against the violent offenders.

However, Modi received a clean bill of health from the Special Investigations Team (SIT), which was affirmed by the Supreme Court in June 2022. Bhatt was discharged from the police department in 2015 due to “unauthorised absence.”

The Supreme Court rejected Bhatt’s request in October 2015 for the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) for cases brought against him by the Gujarat Government.

Sanjiv Bhatt is currently serving life imprisonment in a custodial death case of 1990, after his conviction in July 2019.