On Tuesday, the Supreme Court delivered a significant judgment, imposing a substantial cost of Rs 3 lakh upon Sanjiv Bhatt, a former IPS officer from Gujarat. This penalty was levied due to Bhatt’s repeated filing of petitions in connection with the alleged drug planting case, which he has been involved in.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions filed by Bhatt, wherein he had alleged bias and unfairness on the part of the presiding trial judge. A bench consisting of Justices Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal decided to impose costs of Rs 1 lakh for each of the three petitions submitted by Bhatt. The Supreme Court directed that these costs must be deposited into the Gujarat High Court Advocates Welfare Fund.
In one of the petitions, Bhatt had requested the transfer of the trial to the court of the senior most Additional Sessions Judge at Banaskantha, citing bias concerns related to the present trial judge, who happens to be the third Additional Sessions Judge. Another petition sought directions for the audio-video recording of the trial court proceedings, while the third petition aimed to introduce additional witnesses into the trial.
Justice Vikram Nath, upon taking up the matter, questioned Bhatt, saying, “How many times have you been to the Supreme Court? At least a dozen times?” Justice Nath then drew attention to a prior order issued by the Court in February, which had rejected Bhatt’s challenge to the High Court’s directive to expedite the trial, accompanied by a Rs 10,000 cost.
Justice Nath remarked, “He has been repeatedly approaching the Courts with the best lawyers. Of course, he has no dearth of finances. He can do something for the benefit of lawyers,” while instructing that the costs should be deposited into the Gujarat High Court Advocates Welfare Fund.
It’s worth noting that Bhatt is currently serving a life sentence in connection with a custodial death case from 1990. He was convicted in this case in July 2019.
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