PM's security breach in Punjab: SC to announce name of judge to head probe panel
Darpan News Desk IANS, 11 Jan, 2022 11:38 AM
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday will announce the name of the retired top court judge who will head the committee to investigate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab last week.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
The bench said it will pass a detailed order in the matter. During the hearing, it orally proposed that other members of the committee would be Director General of Police, Chandigarh, Inspector General, National Investigation Agency (NIA), Registrar General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and Additional DGP, Security, Punjab.
The bench said: "We are taking the PM's security breach very seriously." It added that it will ask the committee to submit its report to it within a short span.
Advocate General D.S. Patwalia, representing the Punjab government, complained against show-cause notices to its Chief Secretary and the DGP. He urged the top court to form an independent committee to probe the matter. "Hang me if I am guilty... but don't condemn me unheard," submitted Patwalia.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, defended the show-cause notices issued by the Central government. However, the top court expressed its displeasure at Centre's stand, questioning what is the point of asking the court to examine the matter if the Centre wanted to go ahead on its own.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the Delhi-based petitioner Lawyer's Voice, emphasised on the importance of protection to the PM of the country and cited previous top court ruling that looked at the SPG Act.
The joint call to action comes from non-attainment cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Khanna, Patiala and others reeling under poor air quality, and not just during winters.
In his address in the Assembly's special session to mark the commemoration of 400th Prakash Purb of Guru Tegh Bahadur, he stressed that the Sikh faith is distinguished by the tradition of martyrdom to uphold principles and righteousness given to "us by our great Gurus".
A total of 40.8 per cent people have shown satisfaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the five states going to the polls next year, while 41.3 per cent showed dissatisfaction with him, as per the ABP-CVOTER-IANS BATTLE FOR THE STATES - WAVE 1.
According to the ABP-CVOTER-IANS BATTLE FOR THE STATES - WAVE 1, the goodwill of the Union government remains the same except in Punjab, which is up against the Centre over the three farm laws.
The survey found that overall, 13.3 per cent said the 'country is moving forward but not my life', 29.3 per cent said the 'country is moving forward and my life too', while 5 per cent said that 'life is improving but the country is in poor state'.
A day earlier, Customs officials had recovered 495 grams of gold valued at Rs 24.14 lakh from a passenger on his arrival from Dubai. The gold was concealed in various items like a blender, facial cream box, and sandals. A case for smuggling of gold was registered. Further investigation is in progress, an official said.
