Supreme Court on Friday took suo moto notice of the death of the judicial officer in Jharkhand. The Apex court sought a status report on the investigation from the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) of the state within a week.
Additional District and Session Judge of Dhanbad Uttam Anand’s death was suspected to be a hit and run case, after being reported as an accident earlier.
The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana and justice Surya Kant took suo moto notice of the incident and registered the case as “Re: Safeguarding Courts and Protecting Judges (Death of ASJ Dhanbad)”. Jharkhand high court has already taken suo moto cognizance of the incident on Thursday. The top court clarified that it does not intend to interfere with the proceedings pending before the high court.
The high court took serious note of the incident and asked the police to submit details of the case probe. The decision of the top court to take cognizance of the incident is seen as an attempt to monitor the progress of the investigation. Hours after the incident took place, the CJI spoke to the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court. Following which the secretary-general of the Supreme Court took up the matter with the registrar general of the Jharkhand high court.
A bench headed by CJI N V Ramana took suo motu cognizance on the issue & said that it has come across several instances of alleged attack on many judicial officers & lawyers inside & outside the court.
— ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2021
The Jharkhand Police have registered a first information report based on CCTV camera footage of the incident. A 14 member Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted, and two persons have since been arrested. The police have alleged that the two were in the auto-rickshaw that caused the accident. The auto-rickshaw was found to be stolen from Dhanbad.
SC said that this court wants to address the safety & security of judicial officers in the country
— ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2021
Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President and senior advocate Vikas Singh mentioned the incident before the CJI and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CJI had appreciated the concern shown by the Bar and said that the situation is being monitored by the high court and if there is any need for the top court to intervene, it will.
