Hostel attack case: 3 more held, HC no to suo motu PIL
“Don’t make us an investigation agency”, the High Court said firmly on Monday while rejecting a request from a lawyer to take up as a suo motu PIL the attack on foreign students at Staterun Gujarat University over the weekend.
A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Sunita Agrawal along with Justice Aniruddha P. Mayee underlined that they are not police inspectors, emphasising their role as a constitutional court.
Police on Monday arrested three more persons in connection with the alleged attack, the crime branch said. It had on Sunday nabbed two persons — Hitesh Mevada and Bharat Patel — and handed them over to the Gujarat University police station for further legal process, it said in a release.
Court’s stand
The High Court Bench declined to take suo motu cognisance of the incident, highlighting that the police would handle the matter. The court’s stance was clear that not every incident in the city warrants a PIL.
“Our effort is that justice be done, but don’t make us an investigating agency. We are not doing that. We still want to remind ourselves that we are constitutional courts. We will definitely take into cognisance if such a matter comes in, but this is not one of those,” the Chief Justice said.
Lawyer’s request
The decision came after lawyer K.R. Koshti urged the HC to consider the issue as a suo motu PIL.
The court advised the lawyer to seek legal recourse if there were concerns about the FIR.
Two students — one from Sri Lanka and another from Tajikistan — were hospitalised after the attack, which took place in the Ablock hostel, the police earlier said.