Bar Council of India (BCI) in its report filed on Thursday before the Supreme Court said lawyers’ body didn’t obstruct the Crime Branch from filing the charge sheet in the court.
The report said lawyers didn’t obstruct advocate Deepika Singh Rajawat, representing the victim’s family, from appearing in the matter
The SC had directed BCI to visited Jammu and submit its report over the conduct of lawyers from high court bar association and other local associations . The team visited Jammu on April 20
BCI filed in sealed cover, its enquiry report related to the alleged obstruction by lawyers in the case at Kathua.
The report also said that the demand of J&K High Court Bar Association, Jammu and Kathua District Bar Association for a CBI probe in the matter appears to be justified.
The SC Bench said its “real concern” was to see that a fair trial was conducted in the Kathua case.
Advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for J&K opposed the BCI’s report
J&K government’s lawyer maintained that the police team was heckled allegedly by lawyers due to which they could not file the charge sheet in the trial court.
Alam told the bench that the report of BCI cannot be relied upon since no Crime branch officers, who were allegedly obstructed by agitating lawyers at Kathua, were heard.
The bench observed,”let the main issue be not missed. Fair investigation, fair trial, appropriate legal guidance and representation of both the accused and the victim’s family has to be there.”
“Instead of getting into what the BCI report says and the lawyers say, let us not digress from the real issue. The real issue is that how can we achieve justice,” the bench said.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for the victim’s father, told the bench that the case and its trial should be monitored by the apex court.
The bench, however, said that fast tracking the trial doesn’t mean that proper opportunity was not granted in accordance with the procedure to the accused as well as the victim’s family.
