The petition against some former and serving constitutional heads was filed by the National Lawyers’ Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms.
Former chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh Kalikho Pul. Credit: PTI
New Delhi: The National Lawyers’ Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms (NLCJTR) has filed a petition in the Delhi high court seeking a directive to lodge an FIR against some former and serving constitutional heads based on the allegations leveled by the late Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul in his 60-page suicide note.
The petition, filed on March 24, sought “issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing police/CBI to register a first information report and investigate into the allegations contained in the suicide note with utmost reticence, caution and discreetness called for keeping in mind the high constitutional office occupied by the dignitaries named therein.”
Filed by NLCJTR along with ten others, the plea stated that the people against whom the allegations were made by Pul hold high constitutional positions powers and “are or were in the control of affairs of the nation either in their official capacity or through someone who holds such powers of the nation.”
“Even if they are clean in their character, shining like a real diamond in the public duties they discharge, there is a need to conduct the investigation and allay the shadow and doubts from the public minds, which are created out of the said suicide note. Or, otherwise, the law needs to take its own course,” it said.
The petitioners said they “feel disturbed” to find that even if the note has been in public domain for weeks together, “no demand from any quarter has been made that the procedure as contemplated by the laws of the land be initiated.”
Pul committed suicide on August 8, 2016, at the chief minister’s bungalow in Itanagar and left behind ten typed copies of his suicide note titled “Mere Vichar” (My Thoughts). After months of intense political power games, Pul became the state chief minister in February 2016 but had to step down after an adverse judgement by the Supreme Court last July.
Forum for All Mishmis staged a protest march in Kalikho Pul’s native town Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh on March 26. Pul belonged to the Mishmis tribe. Credit: Special Arrangement
On February 8, The Wire published Pul’s suicide note after redacting the names mentioned in it. The Wire report led Pul’s first wife, Dangwimsai Pul, to hold a press meet in Itanagar and demand a CBI probe into the matter and the resignation of Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu and his deputy Chowna Mein.
On February 17, Dangwimsai held a press meet in New Delhi and distributed copies of the suicide note to the media without redacting the names mentioned in it. She also wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India, J.S. Khehar, seeking help to file an FIR against the constitutional heads citing the K. Veeraswami judgement.
Justice Khehar, in turn, converted the letter into a writ petition and assigned a two-judge bench to hear it. However, Dangwimsai’s lawyer Dushyant Dave objected to it and withdrew the petition on February 23. She later submitted an application to the vice president of India to consult the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court as per the K. Veeraswami judgement to file an FIR against the senior judges of the apex court named by her husband in the note.