Don’t spread wings, if you can’t manage things: HC to Punjab

The Punjab and Haryana high court pulled up the Punjab government over its claims on war against drugs, saying it should not go overboard on the issue.

The bench of justice Surya Kant and justice Sudip Ahluwalia observed that the Punjab government’s initial enthusiasm was over and it was “miserably missing” in action now. “Don’t spread your wings, if you can’t manage,” the bench of justice Surya Kant and justice Sudip Ahluwalia said. The bench was reacting to submission of additional advocate general Reeta Kohli that government had constituted a special task force, which was working on a overarching framework to deal with the problem, including de-addiction to other related issues.

The court’s observations came after it perused a CBI report submitted by counsel, Sukhdeep Singh Sandhu on extradition of 12-odd alleged “drug lords” sitting abroad. It came to light that despite investigation going on for over three years now, the government has failed to supply details such as date of birth and photographs in case of two persons — Harbans Sidhu and Madan Lal.

Further, Canadian authorities had sent back extradition requests of eight persons . Of 13 people, only one has been arrested so far.

“These are not technical details. I can understand if they ask about fingerprints or more. But you don’t have details such as the date of birth or a photograph. Should I record you are not able to identify. It shows your competence,” the bench said.

Later, the HC asked the CBI to put extradition proceedings in abeyance in these two cases since Punjab was not able to supply details and gave the government two week’s time to send details about eight other persons in the required format.