Former Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt (centre). (File Photo)
The Supreme Court on Monday asked Gujarat government to respond to the charge by sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife Shweta that he was not being allowed to execute the requisite documents to approach the apex court.
Terming the allegation “serious”, a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha said in its order, “Before we go into the merits of the case we would like the State of Gujarat to respond to the allegations contained in the aforesaid statement”.
The court was referring to the contention in Shweta’s petition that her “husband has been taken into custody in the most arbitrary manner and he has also been taken on Police Custody Remand” and that he “is not allowed to execute Vakalatnama and any other documents required mandatorily to file the present Special Leave Petition”.
The court added, “We have taken the above view as, according to us, the issue raised by the averments made in paragraph 3 of the application for permission to file Special Leave Petition raises issue of great and substantial importance as it pertains to allegations made against the State in virtually preventing citizens from approaching this Court”.
The bench asked Gujarat to file its reply before September 28.
After hearing the petitioner’s counsel, Justice Gogoi remarked that “normally in criminal matter the accused approaches the court. But here the wife has come. This is serious”.
The bench then told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for the state, “If a citizen is saying that her husband is not being allowed to come to this court then we must go into the core of the issue”. The counsel also agreed with the court’s suggestion to first verify the charge before going into the merits of the petition.
Bhatt, who was sacked from service in 2015 is currently in custody in connection with a 22-year-old case in which he has been accused of framing a Rajasthan-based lawyer in a narcotics case
The lawyer, Sumersingh Rajpurohit, had filed a case in 1996 against Bhatt, who was then SP of Banaskantha district, and others. The Gujarat High Court had recently ordered an SIT of CID to probe the case.
The court will now hear the matter on October 4.