A decade after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu cognizance of the drugs menace in Punjab, a Division Bench will pronounce its verdict on Friday.
The verdict by the Bench of Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan will come nearly five months after much-hyped “sealed cover” reports submitted before the high court in the case were opened. The final status report –– part of a trilogy –– had largely talked about the emergence of “certain serious acts of misconduct” on the part of now-dismissed inspector Inderjit Singh.
One of the oldest pending PILs, the matter has its genesis in a letter forwarded to the high court by retired IPS officer Shashi Kant way back in September 2013 underscoring drug menace in Punjab and requesting for judicial scrutiny. Kant was assisting the Bench of then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Augustine George Masih in another petition by Tarlochan Singh through counsel Navkiran Singh on the specific issue of drug menace in the jails of Punjab.
A Mohali resident, he was lodged at Ropar district jail at the time of filing the petition. The inmate was seeking an inquiry not into the sale of intoxicants in the Ropar Jail “in connivance with the jail officials”, but also their highhandedness towards prisoners reporting against illegal activities.
The suo motu case came up for hearing on a regular basis till March 2020, but came to a standstill after the high court went into restrictive functioning mode following Covid outbreak. The matter was being heard on a regular basis again from October 2021.
