News Analysis India

Tag: Jharkhand High Court

  • Jharkhand cop death: Demand for initiating contempt proceedings against Advocate General

    By PTI

    RANCHI: An interlocutory application demanding contempt of court proceedings against Advocate General of Jharkhand and Additional Advocate General for “conduct against dignity” was filed with the Jharkhand High Court during hearing of the death case of Rupa Tirkey, a sub-inspector of police, on behalf of the applicant.

    It has been said in the application that the behaviour of Advocate General Rajiv Kumar and Additional Advocate General Sachin Kumar during the last hearing was contrary to the dignity of the court and therefore a case of contempt of court should be initiated against them.

    After this, the bench on Thursday, while issuing notices to the Advocate General and Additional Advocate General, has fixed the matter for hearing on August 31.

    During the last hearing of Rupa Tirkey’s case, Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan told Justice SK Dwivedi that he should not hear the matter now.

    The Advocate General had told the court that after the hearing of the case was over on August 11, the microphone of the petitioner’s advocate had remained on.

    He was telling his client that the decision of the matter was bound to come in his favour and two hundred per cent CBI inquiry is fixed in this case.

    When the counsel for the applicant is making such a claim, the bench is urged not to hear the matter.

    The court asked the Advocate General to present what he was saying in the court through an affidavit.

    But the Advocate General refused to file the affidavit and said that his oral statement was sufficient.

    After this, the bench, recording the statement of the Advocate General, referred the matter to the Chief Justice.

    During this, the bench said that even if a common man raises questions in court, then it is not in accordance with the dignity of the judiciary.

    The bench said that when this question has arisen, the Chief Justice should decide which bench will hear the matter.

    But Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan has again sent the matter to the bench of Justice SK Dwivedi for hearing.

    Rupa Tirkey’s father Devanand Oraon has filed a petition in the High Court demanding a CBI inquiry into the matter.

    The petitioner claimed that Rupa Tirkey has not committed suicide, but has been murdered and the police is giving it the colour of suicide by calling it a case of love affair.

    The circumstances in which the body was found after his daughter’s death suggest that it was not a suicide.

    The court was told that there is a person with political clout named Pankaj Mishra in Sahibganj and that person is under suspicion.

    After Rupa’s death, Pankaj Mishra has spoken to the SIT chief, Deputy Superintendent of Police, several times.

    Presenting the call details of Pankaj Mishra in the court, the counsel for the petitioner Devanand said that he had constant talks with the SP, DC and DSP.

    The court was told that Rupa Tirkey was probing several important cases.

    Due to this a conspiracy was hatched to kill her and Pankaj Mishra and some policemen were allegedly involved in it.

    A police sub-inspector of the 2018 batch, Tirkey had died allegedly by suicide in early May at her government accommodation at Sahebganj.

  • Jharkhand HC Chief Justice to weekly monitor CBI probe into mowing down of judge at Dhanbad

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said the Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice will monitor weekly the progress made in the CBI probe into the alleged mowing down of a judge by a vehicle on July 28 in Dhanbad, and observed that the sealed cover report of the central agency did not contain much details.

    A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant asked the CBI to file its report weekly with the high court where the bench headed by the Chief Justice would monitor it.

    The top court had on July 30 taken suo motu cognizance of the “unfortunate” “sad demise” of the judge in “gruesome incident” and had sought a status report within a week from Jharkhand’s Chief Secretary and the DGP on probe.

    CCTV footage showed that District and Sessions Judge-8 of Dhanbad court, Uttam Anand, was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk early on July 28 when a heavy auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind and fled the scene.

    Locals took him to a nearby hospital, where the doctors declared him dead.

  • Dhanbad hit and run case: Jharkhand HC also expresses displeasure over delay in filing the FIR

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: To rule out any possibility of tampering with evidence in Dhanbad hit and run case that killed Additional District Judge Uttam Anand, the Jharkhand High Court directed CBI to start the probe immediately. While hearing the case on Tuesday, the Court also expressed displeasure over SIT’s statusreport, asking why it took so long for police to lodge the FIR.

    “In order to rule out any tampering with the evidence related to the case, the CBI must take over the case as soon as possible,” said the Court. It also directed the SIT to provide all documents and logistic support to the CBI.

    The CBI Counsel, however, informed the Court that he has already received the copy of the notification issued by the state government referring the case to the central agency. It will most likely take over the case by Wednesday, he said.

    Earlier during the hearing, the Court expressed displeasure over SIT’s status report and asked why it took so long to lodge the FIR? “The incident took place at 5:08 am, then why the FIR was lodged only at 12:45 pm?” asked the court.

    The Court also directed DGP Neeraj Sinha to make arrangements for providing security to the judicial officers in Dhanbad as they are not feeling safe after the incident. The DGP was directed to provide security at their residential premises as well.

    Later talking to the media, Dhanbad SSP Sanjeev Kumar informed that the investigation team have received permission for conducting four tests, including the brain mapping and narco-tests of the accused.

    “We have already been granted permission to conduct brain mapping and narco-tests for the two accused persons — Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma,” said the SSP further adding that they “are trying to contact Gujarat Forensic Science Laboratory and will take further action as soon as we get dates from them.”

    On the question of interrogation of the family members of former MLA Sanjeev Singh’s close aide Ranjay Singh, who was recently killed by some unidentified criminals and his case was pending in the Court of ADJ Uttam Anand, the SSP said that different teams are investing the case will submit status report to the SIT. Only then, he would be able to say anything in this regard.

    Notably, a CCTV footage showing an auto-rickshaw intentionally hitting Additional District and Session Judge of Dhanbad, from behind on a deserted road had raised doubts over his death while he was on his morning walk schedule on Thursday.

    The incident took place near Golf Ground less than 500 meter from his house at Judge Colony of Hirapur, when he was out for his daily morning walk.

  • Jharkhand HC has already taken up matter of Dhanbad judicial officer’s ‘killing’: SC

    A judicial officer was allegedly killed in Jharkhand #39;s Dhanbad district after being hit by a vehicle, police had said.

  • RS poll horse-trading case: Suspended ADG Anurag Gupta gets relief as Jharkhand HC stays his arrest

    By PTI
    RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday stayed till August 11 the arrest of suspended Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Anurag Gupta, the main accused in the alleged horse-trading of MLAs in the Rajya Sabha elections held in 2016.

    In a relief to Gupta, the court ordered not to arrest him till August 11, the next date of hearing in the case.

    The order was given by a bench of Justice SK Dwivedi which also issued notice to the state government seeking its response in the matter.

    The court, however, refused to halt the ongoing investigation against Gupta under Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) as per the petition in this case and has given the agency the liberty to continue with its probe.

    The suspended ADG has been charged with indulging in horse-trading of legislators in favour of a BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand in 2016.

    The then Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) president Babulal Marandi had lodged a complaitn with the Election Commissiuon in this regard.

    An FIR was registered on March 29, 2018 on the instructions of the Election Commission on the basis of a CD in which bailable sections were imposed.

    Gupta had filed a petition in the High Court challenging the addition of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) in the case.

    During the hearing, senior Supreme Court advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing on behalf of Gupta, said that the state government has given petition to add PC Act in this case with the intention of harassing Gupta.

    The Crime Research Laboratory (Forensic Lab) did not find the CD to be completely accurate and demanded the original device.

    Following the High Court order in February 2021, the original device has been sent to a forensic lab for testing.

    Even before the report came from there, the research officer has applied in the lower court and demanded the addition of PC Act, the lawyer argued.

    He said the provisions of CrPC have not been properly followed in this case and Gupta can be arrested anytime if PC Act is added.

    Therefore his arrest should be stopped.

    This was contended by the Advocate General of the state government, Rajiv Ranjan who said sufficient evidence has been found against them in the investigation, on the basis of which the research officer has applied in the court to add PC Act.

    After this, the High Court stayed the arrest of Gupta till the next date of hearing, directing the state government to file a detailed reply in four weeks.

  • Jharkhand HC cancels merit list of sixth JPSC Civil Services Exam

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: In yet another embarrassment, the Jharkhand High Court cancelled the merit list of the 6th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) Civil Services Examination which was declared on April 23, 2020 to fill up 326 posts in various departments of the state government.

    Justice SK Dwivedi, while hearing a bunch of petitions filed by candidates challenging the JPSC result,directed the JPSC to declare fresh merit list within 8 weeks and hand it over to the state government. The Court further directed the JPSC that the state government will allot cadres to the candidates within four week accordingly.

    Observing that the merit list is not in accordance with the established rules of the JPSC, the Court pointed out that the qualifying mark of the qualifying subject (Hindi-English) was also added while preparing the merit list, whereas examination rules of the JPSC specifically ruled out that qualifying marks can be counted in any way for the final selection.

    Terming the decision as historical, the petitioner’s advocate and former Advocate-General Ajit Kumar said that the Court has passed an order for quashing the merit list and now as per the directions of the court, the merit list has to be revised by way of correctly applying the conditions with respect to paper-I and clause (13) with respect to qualifying marks for each papers and category wise candidates.

    “This judgment is beneficial of the permanent residents of Jharkhand who are basically studying in Hindi medium schools and paper-I was made to be qualifying for that purpose only.  For the first time, the High Court has passed orders for fixing responsibility upon the erring officers, this is unprecedented and historical,” said the former AG.

    Terming it a case of gross misconduct that the merit list was prepared by violating the law by the JPSC, the Court has directed the competent authority to fix responsibility on the erring officials and take action against them so that the same is not repeated in the future, he added.

    According to Kumar, the judgment is likely to impact the fate of candidates who have already joined the service.

    “The new merit list will change the result, as there are chances that some candidates, who earlier qualified the exams, may not get through this time. There are also chances that cadres of some successful candidates may change after the new merit list is published,” said the former AG, who pleaded the case on behalf of some petitioners.

    Notably, the result was challenged before the court on various grounds like discrepancy in the merit list, violation of reservation policy among others. The court had conducted the final hearing from February 3 to February 17, and the judgment was kept reserved.

  • Jharkhand HC expresses anguish over insufficient facilities at RIMS

    By ANI
    RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday heard various PILs related to COVID-19 and expressed its anguish over insufficient facilities at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

    The Court said that it is very unfortunate that RIMS does not have a CT Scan machine and other facilities like ECG and Cath lab.

    Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan informed the court that they (the government) are in the process of getting a CT Scan machine at the hospital.

    The Court also instructed the government to give a detailed report regarding COVID-19 centers set up for children with their mothers.

    It further ordered the Additional Director General of Police and the Crime Investigation Department (CID), who is heading the probe in the Remdesivir black marketing matter, to be present for the next hearing.

    There are currently 14,196 active COVID-19 cases in Jharkhand, as per the state health department. So far, 3,14,929 recoveries and 4,910 deaths have been reported in the state. 

  • Lalu’s release from jail delayed as lawyers not attending courts work due to COVID surge

    By PTI
    RANCHI: Despite getting bail in the last pending case of the fodder scam more than a week back, RJD president Lalu Prasad’s release from jail has further been delayed till May 3 when the lawyers are expected to resume courts works following restrictions imposed by the Jharkhand Bar Council in view of coronavirus surge.

    Prasad had acquired bail from the Jharkhand High Court on April 17 in the Dumka treasury case of the multi-crore rupees fodder scam on completion of half the sentence period, paving way for his release from jail.

    The bail order was given by Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh.

    Prasad’s lawyer Devarshi Mandal had said at that time that they will move Special CBI court in Ranchi after it opens on April 19 to seek his release following High Court order.

    But, the process was delayed as the state bar council in a meeting on April 18 told lawyers to keep away from courts in view of large-scale infection of judicial staff.

    The bar council again on April 25 extended the ban by another week till May 2.

    Prasad’s lawyer Prabhat Kumar told PTI Tuesday that till the bar council lifts the restrictions the process cannot be started.

    Bar council secretary Rajesh Pandey said another meeting will be held on May 2 to decide future course of action.

    The RJD chief is in judicial custody in AIIMS New Delhi since January this year.

    Talking about release procedure, Prasad’s lawyer Devarshi Mandal had said, they are getting a signed application from Prasad which will be submitted to the CBI court along with the HC order.

    Since his signed application will be there so Prasad need not appear in person before the CBI court, he had said.

    The CBI court will then send the order to Birsa Munda Jail in Ranchi, in whose custody Prasad was originally sent by the court.

    The Birsa Munda jail authorities will send the relevant papers to Tihar jail in the national capital, in whose custody Prasad is at present, which will enact the release process of Prasad, Mandal said.

    If things would have materialised on time, Prasad could have been freed after 39 months and 25 daysof incarceration.

    While allowing bail prayer to Prasad, the court had directed him to submit his passport and not leave the country without permission.

    It had also instructed him not to change his address and mobile number during the bail period.

    The court also ordered him to deposit Rs 5 lakh penalty amount each in two cases-one under IPC sections and another Corruption Act- and two sureties of Rs one lakh each.

    While sentencing Prasad in the Dumka case on March 24, 2018 to 14 years in jail, a special CBI court of Ranchi had also imposed a fine of Rs 60 lakh, Rs 30 lakh each under IPC sections and corruption Act.

    The instant case is related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.

    13 crore from the Dumka treasury in the early 1990s.

    Prasad had acquired bail in three other cases of the fodder scam-Deogarh, Chaibasa and Ranchi’s Doranda trasury cases- and was waiting for judgement in the Dumka case.

    The 73-year-old RJD supremo was airlifted to AIIMS New Delhi on January 24 last in view of his bad health.

    The Rs 950 cror fodder scam took place in the Animal Husbandry department in Bihar when Prasad was the chief minister.

    Lalu is in Ranchi jail after his sentence in Rs 89 lakh Deogarh trerasury case on December 23, 2017.

    The RJD chief’s son and leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav has said earlier that notwithstanding bail and even after completion of release procedure,seeing his medical condition Prasad would continue at Delhi AIIMS for some more time and would come to Patna residence only after recuperating fully and on advise of the attending doctors.

  • Lalu Prasad Yadav’s bail plea in fodder scam postponed by a week

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: The hearing for the bail application of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam related to Dumka treasury was deferred by a week on Friday after the CBI sought time to file a counter-affidavit for the plea of defense counsel.

    The bail application was filed in Jharkhand High Court on the grounds of completion of half of his sentence.

    On February 19 this year, the court had rejected the same as the RJD chief had falled short by 17 days to complete half of his sentencing.

    After completing the said period in jail, the RJD chief once again sought bail in the court. 

    “Even as my client completed a month and 17 days today according to the court’s order of February 19, we approached it seeking bail. But the CBI sought one more week to file a counter-affidavit in the case. The CBI, however, has allowed three days for filing the counter-affidavit pushing the next date of hearing toApril 16,” RJD Chief’s advocate Prabhat Kumar said.

    Notably, after being convicted by a Special CBI Court in Ranchi on December 23, 2017, in the second fodder scam case involving the illegal withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury, the RJD Chief was lodged in Birsa Munda Central jail in Ranchi. However, he had to be shifted to RIMS on August 29, 2018, after his health started deteriorating.

    The 72-year RJD Chief, after being diagnosed with symptoms of pneumonia, was shifted to AIIMS in January this year on the recommendation of an eight-member medical board, set up to look into his health conditions. Yadav is also a chronic patient of hypertension, diabetes, heart and kidney ailments.

    Yadav, so far, has been convicted in four out of the five cases related to multi-crore fodder scam cases related to Chaibasa Treasury (RC20A/96) on September 30, 2013, another Chaibasa Treasury (RC68A/96) on January 24, 2018, Deoghar Treasury (RC 64A/96) on February 23, 2018 and Dumka Treasury (RC38A/96) on February 19.

    RC 47A/96, related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from Doranda treasury in Ranchi, is still pending in a Special CBI Court in Ranchi. The RJD Chief has already secured bail in Deoghar Treasury (RC 64A/96), Chaibasa Treasury (RC 68A/96) and another Chaibasa Treasury (RC20A/96) related case.

  • Fodder scam: Lalu Prasad Yadav moves Jharkhand HC again, seeking bail in Dumka treasury case

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, once again, has approached Jharkhand High Court seeking bail in fodder scam case RC 38A/96 related to illegal withdrawal Rs 3.13 crore from Dumka Treasury on the ground of completing half of his sentencing.

    Earlier on February 19, the Jharkhand HC had turned down his bail application as he fell short by nearly two months in completing half of his sentencing.

    “A bail application has been filed in the Jharkhand High Court in Dumka treasury case on the ground of completing half of his sentencing. Last time, he fell short by two months,” his advocate Devarshi Mandal was quoted as saying.  As two months’ time has already been passed, a fresh bail application has been moved in the Court, he added.

    Notably, after being convicted by a Special CBI Court in Ranchi on December 23, 2017, in the second fodder scam case involving the illegal withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury, the RJD Cheif was lodged in Birsa Munda Central jail in Ranchi but was shifted to RIMS on August 29, 2018, looking at his deteriorating health conditions.

    The 72-year RJD Chief, after being diagnosed with symptoms of pneumonia, was shifted to AIIMS in January this year on the recommendation of an eight-member medical board, set up to look into his health conditions. Yadav is also a patient of hypertension, diabetes, heart and kidney ailments.

    Yadav, so far, has been convicted in four out of the five cases related to multi-crore fodder scam cases related to Chaibasa Treasury (RC20A/96) on September 30, 2013, another Chaibasa Treasury (RC68A/96) on January 24, 2018, Deoghar Treasury (RC 64A/96) on February 23, 2018 and Dumka Treasury (RC38A/96) on February 19.

    RC 47A/96, related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from Doranda treasury in Ranchi, is still pending in a Special CBI Court in Ranchi. The RJD Chief has already secured bail in in Deoghar Treasury (RC 64A/96), Chaibasa Treasury (RC 68A/96) and another Chaibasa Treasury (RC20A/96) related case.