New Delhi: Three review petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court challenging its decision to quash a cheating and forgery case against former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) party.
On April 28, the apex court quashed the cheating and forgery proceedings, in the connection with controversy over the dual constitution of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), against Badals. Parkash Singh Badal, a five-time former chief minister of Punjab and Akali Dal patriarch, died at a private hospital in Mohali on 25 April this year. He was 95.
Earlier, the apex court passed its judgment on petitions filed by Badals and Daljit Singh Cheema, in connection with a complaint filed by a Hoshiarpur resident Balwant Singh Khera. In 2009, Khera had filed a criminal complaint before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate. Khera has filed the review petitions through advocate Indira Unninayar challenging the April 28 judgment.
The plea said: "The review petitioner, the original complainant in the matter, is seeking review of the Judgment dated 28.4.2023 as it contains several serious errors apparent on the face of the record, which have resulted in a grave miscarriage of justice in this matter..."
The plea said: "The errors include – erroneous recording and appreciation of the allegations in the complaint, application of the incorrect ingredients of various provisions of the law, and erroneous recording that no false document was produced, although several such documents are on record, apart from a witness statement categorically admitting to the deception and fraud alleged."
The plea argued that the errors in this judgment have caused a very important criminal trial against the respondents (accused) - powerful politicians – to get nipped in the bud / aborted at its nascent stage, despite abundant and compelling material / evidence pointing at their role in the offences alleged to have been committed.
The plea argued that despite a plethora of crucial evidence against the accused, the apex court in its judgment disregarded all of it on patently erroneous grounds – by way of errors of fact and of law. “The issues are far larger and include the filing a false Constitution and Undertaking before the ECI and of using 2 different Constitutions before 2 different authorities – one a false and forged one, to meet the eligibility conditions for the party’s registration as a political party u/S 29A, and the other, the real one, to meet the eligibility conditions to contest the Sikh Gurdwara elections. Further, the inquiry reveals a series of continuing frauds over the years all the way through 1989, 2003, 2009 to 2017”, said the plea.
The Badals and Cheema had moved the apex court challenging the proceedings pending before Punjab’s Hoshiarpur court in the alleged case of forgery and cheating filed against them, in the controversy over dual constitution of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The complaint accused SAD of submitting two different constitutions, i.e., one with the Gurdwara Election Commission (GEC) and the second with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to seek recognition as a political party.
