SC to review its verdict in Navjot Sidhu road rage case

Saturday 15th September 2018 07:55 EDT
 
 

NEW DELHI: In a major setback for Punjab Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Supreme Court has decided to review its own judgment letting him off with a Rs 1000 fine in a 30 year old fatal road rage case. On May 15, the SC had acquitted Sidhu of culpable homicide in the case, finding him guilty of the lesser offence of voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code. Written by a Bench led by Justice J Chelameswar, the judgment reasoned that the crime was 30 years old and there was no former enmity between Sidhu and his victim, Gurnam Singh.

Justice Chelameswar found that a payment of Rs 1000 by the Punjab Minister would “meet the ends of justice.” The bench had also said that roadside brawls were a “very common sigh in this country”. Unhappy by the judgment, Singh's family decided to return to the Supreme Court for a rare remedy, a review of its own judgment, through an open court hearing. A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul decided there was merit in the family's plea. They found that the May 15 judgment did indeed require a relook.

The Review Bench, led by Justice Khanwilkar, admitted the family's petition and issued notice to Sidhu to respond on why the quantum of his punishment should not be changed. They held in an order dated September 11 that , “Issue notice restricted to quantum of sentence qua respondent number 1- Navjot Singh Sidhu.” The former cricketer may face a prison sentence of one year if the court decides to swap the Rs 1000 fine for a jail term under Section 323 IPC.

While the SC conceded that Sidhu had given a single blow to the man's head, it said that medical evidence was “absolutely uncertain” about the cause of Singh's death shortly after the run-in.


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