The Bombay Lawyers Association has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court praying that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be directed to challenge Amit Shah’s discharge by a Special CBI court in the Sohrabuddin encounter case.
The Bombay Lawyers Association, which filed the public interest litigation, termed as “illegal, arbitrary and malafide” the CBI’s decision not to challenge the December 30, 2014 order passed by a court here discharging Shah. The PIL urged the high court to issue a direction to the CBI to file a revision application challenging the sessions court’s order discharging Shah.
The petitioner’s lawyer Ahmad Abidi said the plea would be mentioned before a division bench of justices S C Dharmadhikari and Bharti Dangre on January 22.
“The CBI is a premier investigating agency. It has public duty to observe the rule of law in its action but it has miserably failed,” the petition said.
It submitted that the trial court had similarly discharged two Rajasthan Police sub-inspectors, Himanshu Singh and Shyam Singh Charan, and senior Gujarat police officer N K Amin in the case.
“The petitioner has learnt that the CBI has challenged their discharge before the high court. This act of the CBI in challenging discharge of the accused persons on selective basis is arbitrary and unreasonable, rather malafide,” the petition said.
It also claimed that the Supreme Court, while transferring the trial in the case from Gujarat to Mumbai, had ordered that it be concluded expeditiously. “The Supreme Court had said the Administrative Committee of the high court would assign the case to a court where the trial may be concluded judiciously, in accordance with the law, and without any delay.
“The Administrative Committee would also ensure that the trial should be conducted from beginning to end by the same officer, the apex court had said in its order,” it said.
Justice Revati Mohite-Dere will hear the petitions on January 23.
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