Allahabad High Court: A Division Bench of Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal and Karunesh Singh Pawar, JJ., dismissed a petition filed to seek issuance for constitution of a Judicial Commission to probe the alleged police encounter of Gangster Vikas Dubey.
.Present Public Interest Litigation was filed for the purpose of seeking direction for constituting a Judicial Commission to probe into the police encounter of Vikas Dubey by the U.P. Police Special Task Force Team on 10th July, 2020.
Another point raised is for the issuance of direction against the respondents to frame appropriate guidelines governing, planning and carrying out encounters for the purpose of protection of life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Petitioner has submitted that Vikas Dubey, who was arrested from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh for the killing of eight policemen in an ambush in Kanpur on 3-07-2020, was shot dead by the police in an alleged encounter in the morning of 10-07-2020.
According to the police, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) was bringing him back to Kanpur from Madhya Pradesh, when Vikas Dubey tried to flee after snatching a weapon from one of the officers escorting him, leading to his encounter.
Petitioner relied on the Supreme Court decision in PUCL v. State of Maharashtra, (2014) 10 SCC 635, and submitted that guidelines have been framed regarding procedure to be adopted in police encounters because such police encounters affect the credibility of rule of law and the administration of criminal justice system, further it was prayed that an appropriate direction be issued for constitution of a judicial commission to probe into the police encounter of Vikas Dubey by the U.P. Police Special Task Force Team.
Additional Advocate General, Vinod Kumar Sahi submitted that Special Investigating Team headed by the Additional Chief Secretary has already been constituted by State of Uttar Pradesh.
He also added to his submission that, State of U.P. has appointed Justice Sri Sashi Kant Agarwal, a former Judge of this Court, as one member Judicial Commission to enquire into the subject matter in question within a period of two months.
Petitioner at this stage submitted that as Judicial Commission has been constituted, present petition has rendered infructuous and therefore, she may be permitted to withdraw the petition.
Therefore, Court held that the present petition has become infructuous and dismissed the same as withdrawn with liberty to the petitioner to file a fresh petition if occassion arises. [Nandita Bharti v. State of U.P., 2020 SCC OnLine All 863 , decided on 13-07-2020]