The Supreme Court today declined to entertain a plea urging it to take cognizance of the ongoing communal violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district and intervene to stop the killings of innocent people.
The Supreme Court today declined to entertain a plea urging it to take cognizance of the ongoing communal violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district and intervene to stop the killings of innocent people.
As senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani sought the court’s intervention informing it that unofficially more than 100 people have been killed in the riots, a bench of Chief Justice P.Sathasivam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai said: “You are approaching us as if state government is not aware of it and no action is being taken.”
“If in one corner of the country, something is happening, we need not take (its) cognizance,” Chief Justice Sathasivam said as Krishnamani, who is also the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, sought to impress upon the court on the urgency of the situation and need for its intervention.
Asking Krishnamani to air his grievances before the Allahabad High court, the chief justice observed: “We are not taking it lightly but we cannot bypass the procedure.”
The Supreme Court is for everyone and not just for the lawyers, Chief Justice Sathasivam observed as SCBA secretary Pareena Swarup said that some lawyers too were caught in the midst of the communal violence and the court had in past taken cognizance of situations in Haryana and Uttarakhand.
Chief Justice Sathasivam told Krishnamani that if they were filing petition under Article 32 of the Constitution (right to move Supreme Court for the enforcement of fundamental rights), then they have to explain why they are bypassing the high court concerned and mention instance wherein the court in similar situation had taken cognizance of the situation.
IANS
