Lakhimpur Kheri Case : Supreme Court Adjourns Ashish Mishra's Bail Plea Saying Justice Surya Kant's Bench Should Hear It

The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the petition filed by Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, in the Lakhmipur Kheri case related to the killing of farmers in October 2021.

After hearing the petitioner for some time, a bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna expressed the view that the matter has to be heard by a bench in which Justice Surya Kant is a member as he was part of the bench which considered Mishra's bail earlier.

"Judicial propriety demands that the matter be placed before the bench with one of the judges who had heard the matter. We direct the Registry that upon taking instruction from the CJI the matter be placed before appropriate bench", the bench ordered.

Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Mishra, submitted that Mishra had been under custody for over 11 months. He stated that chargesheet has been filed in the case in January 2022. Kumar contended that Mishra was not at the crime site and there are CCTV records which show that he was elsewhere at a distance of 4 km where a wrestling match was taking place. He further contended that the farmers, who were agitating against the farm laws, attacked the convoy of vehicles and the deaths happened when the vehicle ran over the protesters after the driver lost control. He refuted the prosecution case that Mishra fired at the protesters after getting enraged and claimed that there were no firearm injuries in the dead bodies. 

"It is our case when the farmers saw the vehicle and dragged the people out of the car and killed the driver lost control and people were trampled. So far as the case of firing the postmortem does not show anyone being shot at", Kumar submitted.

However, after hearing the matter for sometime, the bench expressed the view that the matter was to be heard by a bench in which Justice Surya Kant is a member. Kumar replied that notice in the present matter was issued by a bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and MM Sundresh.

But the bench expressed that propriety demands that matter is placed before Justice Surya Kant's bench.

Initially, the Allahabad High Court had granted bail to Mishra on February 10, but it was set aside by the Supreme Court bench comprising the then CJI NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli in April 2022 after noting that the High Court took into account irrelevant considerations and ignored relevant factors. The bail application was then remanded to the High Court. The Supreme Court's order came in appeal filed by the relatives of the farmers who got killed in the crime.