Savvy Thakur
Published on: October 26, 2022 at 20:21 IST
Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni asked the Supreme Court to reject his request to move the Government appeal challenging his acquittal in a 22-year-old murder case from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court to the Prayagraj bench.
Instead, Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice Bela M. Trivedi’s bench asked the High Court to hear the appeal on November 10, 2022, the date specified by the High Court and agreed upon by Senior Counsels for both sides.
Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni requested that the Supreme Court reject his request to move the Government’s appeal challenging his acquittal in a 22-year-old murder case from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court to the Prayagraj Bench.
The Allahabad High Court had previously rejected Teni’s plea as well.
Mishra filed a petition with the Supreme Court after the Chief Justice-led bench of the Allahabad High Court disregarded his request to transfer the Government’s appeal on October 25, 2022.
He requested the transfer on the grounds that the Senior Counsel who is representing him was typically based in Allahabad and could not travel all the way to Lucknow for arguments due to his advanced age.
In this regard, the Supreme Court made the observation that the High Court may take into consideration a request to allow the Senior Counsel (representing Mishra) to make submissions via videoconferencing in the event that he or she is unable to travel to Lucknow.
It should be noted that Prabhat Gupta, a rising student leader, was shot to death near his home in the year 2000.
Three people, including Union Minister Teni, were named as the accused in this case. The lower court acquitted him in 2004.
In 2004, the UP government filed a motion with the High Court challenging that order.
The appeal was finally heard by a coordination bench of the High Court on March 12, 2018, when it reserved its order.
However, the same order was released on the application filed by the complainant/applicant because the judgment had not been delivered for more than six months and the matter had been ordered to be listed for final hearing.
After that, four years had passed without a final hearing, so an application for an early listing of the appeal for a final hearing was made earlier this year.
The Court had ordered that the matter be scheduled for a final hearing on May 16, 2022, before the appropriate Bench, after hearing the case on April 7.
The case’s judgment was unable to be delivered despite the order of the Division bench, and the case was postponed at least eight times until October 17.
On November 10, the Court is likely to finally hear the case.