The Supreme Court of India on Friday stayed the order of the High Court directing the reopening of the road outside the Punjab CM's residence in Chandigarh. The Punjab & Haryana High Court had ordered the Police to open the roads outside Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann's residence to resolve the issue of traffic in Chandigarh. Supreme Court's decision came as a response to concerns raised by both the Centre and the Punjab government regarding security threats associated with the road's opening. Interestingly, during the hearing, Advocate General of Punjab, Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh tabled the infamous Sidhu Moose Wala's murder case to remind the sensitivity of the issue. Below is what the Advocate General of Punjab, Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh said in the Supreme Court-
"it's 10 ft...belt of trees plants...Main road to the house is 30 m. Your Lordship knows Sidhu Moosewala case...just when security was removed..." said Punjab AG. In response, Justice Khanna said, " sometimes people are put to inconvenience...let's not forget." Sr Adv for Punjab govt then said, "There is resurgence of terrorism in Punjab...one rocket grenade." The AG was referring to a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack on the Intelligence headquarters in Punjab.
For the unversed, on May 29, 2022, just days short of his 29th birthday, Sidhu Moose Wala was killed in broad daylight when his car was ambushed by six gunmen in Mansa district, Punjab. Later, Lawrence Bishnoi's gang took responsibility for the killing with gangster Goldy Brar hatching the plan to kill the Punjabi singer. The attack on Sidhu took place days after the Punjab Government removed his security.
Coming back to the case, the Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Chandigarh administration, submitted that the move could have grave implications on someone's life. "This is playing with somebody's life," SG said.
As a result, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta noted that both the Centre and Punjab government have opposed the opening of the road, which has been closed since the 1980s, owing to a threat perception. The road had been closed due to security reasons during height of terrorism in Punjab, and was set to be reopened on a trial basis.
The court finally issued order saying, "Issue notice. Direction on opening road on trial basis is stayed till further orders but the writ petition proceedings before the High Court can continue."
For the unversed, in an order passed on April 22, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the Chandigarh police to formulate a traffic management plan to ease the traffic congestion by opening the road outside the Punjab CM’s residence on an experimental basis from May 1. "We all feel that the inputs as such regarding the threat of drones and the RPGs being used would go on to show that the opinion is based on a closed mind-set of the authorities who are insensitive to the general public’s convenience,” said a bench presided over by Acting Chief Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia.