New Delhi: In an apparent relief to Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to issue notice to him on a plea that he sanctioned the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his supporters after June 4 midnight here.
Judges B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar, while declining to entertain the plea by Baba Ramdev, said the court was not inclined to broaden the scope of the case and wanted it to be limited to the police action.
Justice Chauhan told senior counsel Ram Jethamalani, appearing for Ramdev: “We don’t want to expand the scope of the proceedings. We don’t think it is necessary to issue notice to him (Chidambaram)”.
The court said that its concern was to know what were the circumstances that led to the police action, to ensure similar attacks on innocent and sleeping people are not repeated.
“We want to hold the person responsible for this action. We will not go into political consideration (of the crackdown),” the judge said.
The court will August 5 view the two-hour footage of the police crackdown. Counsel for Ramdev and officials of the home ministry, Delhi government as well as Delhi Police would be present at the screening.
The court said that it would hold a final hearing on the matter Aug 8 and 16. The judges made it clear they did not want to prolong the hearing. (IANS)
