[Jheeram Ghati Naxal Attack] SC Dismisses Chhattisgarh Govt.'s Plea For Examination Of Additional Witnesses By Inquiry Commission

A Bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and MR Shah dismissed the plea after considering the submissions of Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing on behalf of the State.

Today, Dr. Singhvi submitted that the additional terms of reference were given, but nothing had been done by the Commission for seven months and no additional witnesses had been examined.

"In October last year, two witnesses were examined, but they did not examine the six witnesses which were sought by the officer-in-charge of the State. Director of Jungle Warfare Training School was not examined. Today we are in 2020 and nothing has happened. Imagine a Commission doing this", submitted Singhvi.

The Bench, at this juncture, noted that the Commission in September 2019 had stated that it would not examine any new witnesses after October 1, 2019. They further noted that the Commission had already closed the proceedings and only needed to file their report.

In light of the above, the Court refused to entertain the Appeal.

On 25 May, 2013, Naxals had attacked a convoy of Congress leaders in Jheeram Ghati valley in Darbha area of Bastar district, killing 29 people, including the then State Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union Minister Vidyacharan Shukla.

On 28 May, 2013, the BJP government in the State set up a Special Judicial Inquiry Commission headed by Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and directed the same to submit a report in three months on circumstances that led to the attack and other related issues. The tenure of the Commission was extended from time to time by the government.

The appeal, filed by Advocate Sumeer Sodhi, contended that the High Court Bench at Bilaspur on January 29, had refused to interfere with the Single Judge order passed on December 12, 2029 which had dismissed the plea for examination of additional witnesses.

It was submitted that on October 11, 2019, the Commission had rejected the prayer of the State to examine more witnesses and had closed the inquiry proceedings without examining the said witnesses who were relevant for the purpose and objective with which the Commission was constituted.