The Supreme Court is set to review its verdict in a 32-year-old road rage case featuring Congress leader Navjot Sidhu and examine if the 58-year -old leader should face tougher charges.
The Punjab Congress chief has been given two weeks’ time to respond to the Supreme Court notice.
Advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the victim’s family, sought punishment under graver offences.
P Chidambaram, representing Sidhu, argued that the initial application from the petitioner was only about quantum of sentence and not nature of offence. Sidhu’s lawyer opposed the nature of offence also being questioned after so many years had passed since the incident.
The court was hearing a petition seeking a review of its May 2018 order exonerating Mr Siddhu in a 1988 road rage case in which Patiala resident Gurnam Singh had died.
The Supreme Court had on May 15, 2018, set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order convicting Navjot Sidhu of culpable homicide and awarding him a three-year jail term in the case, but had held him guilty of causing hurt to a senior citizen.
Though the top court had held Navjot Sidhu guilty of the offence of “voluntarily causing hurt” to a 65-year-old man, it spared him of a jail term and imposed a fine of ₹ 1,000.
Later in September 2018, the top court had agreed to examine a review petition filed by the family members of the dead man and issued notice to Sidhu on it.
