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High Court upholds Human Rights abuser Sumedh Saini’s appointment as Police chief

April 11, 2013 | By

Chandigarh/ Punjab (April 11, 2013): It is learnt that pronouncing it’s decision on a petition challenging the appointment of Punjab DGP Sumedh Saini the Punjab and Haryana high court on April 11, 2013 upheld the appointment, while dismissing the petition. The court reportedly did not find anything wrong in the process adopted by Punjab government to appoint Sumedh Singh Saini as DGP.

Sumedh Saini (R) with Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal (L)

Sumedh Saini (R) with Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal (L) [File Photo]

The decision is being viewed as a major set-back for the human rights concerns in Punjab as the DGP is facing criminal charges including charges of abduction, custodial killings and murder in the courts.

It is notable that the appointment of Saini as DGP had been challenged by a NGO citing that he was facing criminal trial.

A division bench of the High Court comprising former chief justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and justice Rakesh Kumar Jain had reserved its judgment in the case on February 4.

The case had been pending adjudication for the past 12 months in the high court as it was in April 2012 that a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Voices for Freedom, had challenged Saini’s appointment to the DGP’s post on March 14, 2012.

The petitioner had claimed that in the 1994-95 Ludhiana ‘abduction and killing’ of three persons, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had in 2006 chargesheeted Saini and other accused under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), adding that the trial was still pending in the court.

However, on October 16, 2012, discarding the NGO as a petitioner in the public interest litigation on the ground that the NGO did not have the locus standi (legal right to be heard), the high court had taken suo motu notice of the issue to pursue it further, stating that “the issue is of substantial importance”.


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