Lucknow: The Lucknow High Court bench on Thursday ordered the CBI to furnish the status report of the ongoing investigation in the Hathras incident and also inform the Court on the next hearing when and in approximately how many days will the investigation conclude.
The order was passed by a division bench of Justice Pankaj Mittal and Justice Rajan Roy who had taken a suo moto cognizance on the PIL filed under the 'Right to Cremate' title in the Hathras case.
Thursday's order was passed following the November 2 hearing where the Court also disposed the accused's application to be a member to the case saying the court is hearing on two points, first in compliance with the order of October 27 of the Supreme Court for monitoring and the other on the issue of the funeral of the deceased.
The court said that the accused have the right to be heard on both these points, hence they are not necessary parties at this stage. However, the Court also made it clear that if during the hearing of the present case their rights are threatened in any way or are likely to be threatened, they will get the right to be heard.
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The accused had also filed another application requesting that the media be not allowed to show the news of the incident as it is likely to make a difference in the trial of the case. The Court noted that the said application was also disposed of as they have in the order dated October 12, had already requested media houses and political parties not to express any opinion in connection with the case which is against social harmony and also where the victim's family or the rights of the accused were adversely affected.
Court also said no further instructions are required. If there is anything that affects the rights of the victim's family or the accused, we will definitely take note of that.
Along with this, the court also asked the state government whether it is fair and appropriate to keep District Magistrate Praveen Kumar in Hathras during the deliberations as he was also involved in the illegal cremations and other incidents of which the hearing is on. Would it not be appropriate to shift them elsewhere during these procedures, just for fairness and transparency, the court further asked.
The State Government advocates said a clarification would be given to the court on the next hearing that will be on November 25.
