Agreeing to hear, on Monday, the plea filed by Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia for anticipatory bail in a drug case, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Punjab government to not take any coercive action against him, granting interim protection from arrest.
He was granted three-day interim protection from arrest by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana which expired on 27 January.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for Majithia, argued that the present case is blatantly political in nature and has been registered in furtherance of the upcoming elections, with the malafide objective to target Majithia, a mainstream leader of the opposition party.
The case on behalf of Majithia was argued by Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and R S Cheema, assisted by D S Sobti, Arshdeep Singh Cheema, Nikhil Rohatgi and Misha Rohatgi Mohta. Also present were advocates and a team from Karanjawala & Co, led by Advocate Nandini Gore and Sandeep Kapur (senior partner), Virinder Sandhu, Sonia Nigam, Tahira Karanjawala, Apoorva Pandey, Aashneet Singh Anand, Neha Khandelwal, Arjun Sharma, Abhimanshu Dhyani and Sahil Modi.
Appearing for the Punjab government, Senior Advocate P Chidambaram argued that Majithia has gone into hiding after the rejection of his bail plea in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and now he is appearing through counsel.
The Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, after hearing the arguments, posted the further hearing of the case to 31 January.
Majithia, the brother-in-law of SAD Chief Sukhbir Badal, is in the fray for the 20 February assembly polls from Majithia, near Amritsar.
He had moved the high court after a Mohali court dismissed his anticipatory bail petition in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act registered on 20 December.
In a 49-page FIR filed by the State Police Crime Branch at the Mohali police station, the SAD leader has been booked under sections 25, 27A and 29 of the NDPS Act.
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