Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has ordered that Chief Minister Narendra Modi's name be removed from an application seeking re-investigation in the Haren Pandya murder case as he had no locus standing in the matter.
The High Court said without going into the merits of the appeal by Haren's father Vitthal Pandya the Chief Minister was not required to be heard at this stage.
Vitthal Pandya has contended that his son's murder five years back in Ahmedabad was a political one executed allegedly at the behest of Modi and that was the reason he had included the Chief Minister as a respondent in his appeal.
Pandya, a BJP leader who was a Minister of State for Home in Modi's Cabinet, later resigned.
Justice J R Vora and Justice M R Shah in their order yesterday said as the Chief Minister was not a respondent or a party in the murder case which was heard by a Special POTA Court he had no locus at this stage.
As the per the Code of Criminal Procedure, people who are party during a trial in the lower court can only be made parties in a criminal appeal later, the court said.
"We fail to appreciate why and for what purpose respondent number three (Modi) is joined in the present proceedings which is only at the stage of considering the applications of the applicant for re-investigation", the bench observed.
Demanding re-investigation of the murder case, Vitthal Pandya had filed a 200-page appeal in the High Court expressing his dissatisfaction over the CBI probe.
"According to us, at this stage respondent number three (chief minister)has no locus and is not required to be heard and he could not have been joined as party respondent considering various provisions and scheme of Code of Criminal Procedure," the judges said.
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