SC slams media trial in Jessica case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a huge blow to all those campaigning for a retrial of the Jessica Lall murder case.

The Apex Court refused to put on hold the appointment of Sunder Lal Bhayana - the sessions judge who acquitted the nine accused in the case - as a High Court judge.

Terming the ongoing media campaign against the Jessica verdict as a publicity stunt, the SC bench

headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabbarwal shot down the appeal by Advocate Ashok Arora against Bhayana's elevation to the High Court.

"You know the procedure and you cannot conduct a media trial like this. This is all for media publicity," the Bench said.

Arora had urged that Bhayana should not be sworn in till a committee of two former Chief Justices of India (CJI) and three senior advocates examine the verdict and submit its report to the SC collegium. Bhayana is scheduled to be sworn in tomorrow.

The Bench refused to interfere in the matter, saying "simply because he has passed the judgement, you cannot override the collegium of the High Court and the Supreme Court, the Law Minister, the Prime Minister and the President."

Arora had pleaded to the committee, comprising former CJIs J S Verma, V N Khare and senior advocates Fali S Nariman, P P Rao and K Parasaran, to examine the order

Arora had also written to President A P J Abdul Kalam appealing for a retrial.

"It is not that there is something wrong in the judgement. In fact, everything is wrong in the judgement. It appears as if the judgement has been written for the accused persons and Bhayana's elevation was quid pro quo for the acquittals," Arora had alleged.

Bhayana was the Additional Sessions Judge who had aquitted all the nine accused in the Jessica Lall murder case and was promoted as a judge in the Delhi High Court a day after the verdict.

The verdict in the high-profile murder case has elicited outrage from various section of the society and the media and there have been demands of a "fair" retrial.

The main accused Manu Sharma and his accomplice Vikas Yadav are sons of influential politicians and were acquitted in the case last week.