PM's security breach in Punjab: SC to announce name of judge to head probe panel

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.