Delay in CM’s ST status case verdict
New DELHI: ‘Tarikh pe tarikh’ – This cynical Bollywood expression about the functioning of courts in the country has possibly captured the reality of the system as closely as can be.
And the classic example is the case related to the ST status of Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
The hearing of the case, which has reached Supreme Court, has been postponed 14 times since July 21, 2014.
Finding no other option of getting justice, the petitioner Tennydard M. Marak on Tuesday sought the intervention of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Marak said that the verdict of the ST status case in W.P.( C) No. 343/2014 has been delayed indefinitely “after the hearing has been deferred as many as 14 times from July 21, 2014.”
Marak said that under compelling circumstances, he had to approach the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India by filing a ‘Mention Memo’, a written request for early hearing of the case.
Dr Rajeev Dhawan, senior advocate assisted by Manish Goswami , advocate , Supreme Court mentioned the matter before the Bench of three Judges comprising Chief Justice H. L. Dattu, Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Arun Kumar Mishra on Tuesday.
It was submitted that the hearing of the writ petition (civil) No. 343/2014 was getting delayed. Since the matter involved important constitutional issues, a prayer was made to hear the writ petition at an early date.
The Supreme Court heard the senior counsel Dr. Rajeev Dhawan and an appropriate order in this regard is awaited.