Punjab and Haryana High Court seeks affidavits on highway blockade at Shambhu border
Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, May 29
More than three months after the “unlawful sealing of the border between Haryana and Punjab” to prevent farmers from “protesting peacefully” came under the judicial scanner, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed both states to submit detailed affidavits on the ongoing blockade of the highways at the Shambhu border.
‘Shubhkaran had died in Haryana’
- The three-member committee constituted by the high court under Justice Jaishree Thakur after farmer Subhkaran Singh lost his life during the ongoing protests has concluded in its interim report that the place of occurrence was within the jurisdiction of Haryana “and nowhere else”.
- The Bench also directed Punjab to submit the record regarding the post-mortem, along with pellets collected from the body, to the Central Forensic Laboratory at Chandigarh “so that opinion can come by the next date of hearing from the laboratory regarding the type of weapon and the bullet/pellets which it emanated”.
Among other things, the states have been asked to specify how long the position would continue. The direction came as a Division Bench of the high court took note of the inconvenience caused to the commuters.
The Bench of Acting Chief Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji made it clear that the affidavits must provide comprehensive details on the timeline of the highway closures, specifying when the blockades began and how long was it expected to continue. The order came amid increasing concerns about the disruption of traffic and the subsequent impact on daily commuting.
