Supreme Court to hear petition challenging Hazare's Aug 16 arrest

The Supreme Court will hear tomorrow a writ petition filed by J&K Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh challenging detention and arrest of Gandhian Anna Hazare on August 16 hours before he was to launch his fast against corruption.

The petition will be taken up for hearing by a bench of Justice P Sathasivam and Justice BS Chauhan as item no 5 in which Singh has sought notices to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal besides the Union Home Secretary and the Delhi Police Commissioner.

Singh in his petition alleged that the Centre and Delhi police had "acted in a malafide manner" to arrest and detain Anna Hazare and stifling his fundamental right to free speech and liberty guaranteed under Articles 19, 21 and 22.

He has accused the police of invoking CrPC provisions of 107/151 to detain Hazare for merely espousing the cause of a strong Jan Lokpal Bill and weeding out corruption from the country.

He urged the court to declare Hazare's detention as "unconstitutional" and "violative of his fundamental rights" guaranteed under the relevant provisions of the Constitution.

Singh who had filed the petition at the time of Hazare's August 16 arrest had also sought physical production of the Gandhian through the habeas corpus (production) plea. But since Hazare was released by the Government subsequently, the plea for his production has now become infructuous.