UP Govt agrees to have ex-judge for monitoring Kheri probe

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 15

The Uttar Pradesh Government on Monday agreed to the Supreme Court’s suggestion to appoint a retired high court judge to monitor the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight persons, including four farmers, were killed on October 3.

“I have taken instructions… I will leave it to your Lordships. Whoever your Lordships consider may be appointed,” senior counsel Harish Salve told a three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh Government.

Dissatisfied with the probe, the Bench, which also included Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli, had on November 8 said it wanted to appoint former Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Ranjit Singh or Justice RK Jain to oversee the manner in which statements of witnesses were being recorded.

“It (probe) is not going the way we expected,” the Bench had noted on Friday while asking Salve to seek instructions from the UP Government on the issue. It had given time till Monday to the state government to spell out its stand on its suggestion.

Noting that it’s the person being appointed who mattered, Salve on Monday said, “Your Lordship may appoint a judge from any state.”