Stan Swamy's counsel urges HC to monitor inquiry into his death; says court has ‘parens-patriae’ jurisdiction

The counsel of late Jesuit priest Stan Swamy an accused in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case who died earlier this month urged the Bombay High Court on Friday to monitor the magisterial inquiry into his death by invoking its parenspatriae jurisdictionSenior counsel Mihir Desai who represented Swamy in the high court said that although the activist was dead and there existed no question of him being granted bail any more the high court need not consider the late priests appeals seeking bail abatedHe said that there existed previous Supreme Court judgements ruling that high courts could exercise parenspatriae jurisdiction or act as the parent of such appellants who were not in a position to take decisions for themselvesAdvocate Desai urged the high court to permit Swamys aide father Frazer Mascarenhas to participate in the inquiry supposed to be conducted into Swamys death as per section 176 of the CrPCHe urged the court to direct that the inquiry be conducted as per the National Human Rights Commission NHRC guidelines and also to direct the magistrate to submit a copy of the inquiry report before the high court so that the same can be monitoredWe are looking at a peculiar situation here since the appellant died while the appeals were pending But the HC has wide powers Desai saidHe cited the Bhopal gas tragedy case and the case of comatose nurse Aruna Shanbaug where courts had exercised their parenspatriae jurisdiction Appearing for the National Investigating Agency NIA Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh said that while the agency had no objection to father Mascarenhas participating in the inquiry the court need not pass any directions on the magistrate following the NHRC guidelines since that was part of procedure and would be followedSingh said that the NIA however had an objection to the HC asking for the probe report The HC is presiding over two appeals challenging the accuseds rejection of bail on medical grounds and merits he saidWith the accuseds death the appeals stand abated as per section 394 of the CrPC he saidThe high court then directed advocate Desai to give written submissions on whether the appeals stood abated or if they could be amended so that the HC could continue exercising jurisdiction over the matterThe NIA then intervened to say that it had two additional submissions to make ASG Singh referred to a comment made by Justice Shinde on July 19 while hearing the appeals Justice Shinde had said at the time that while the legal issues and charges against Swamy were a different matter that aside it had great respect for the work that Swamy did for the society when he was aliveWe have all condoled the death of Mr Swamy but any personal comments or private comments coming from the judges or any law officer especially in the open court are normally being twisted by the press and social media Singh saidJustice Shinde responded saying that the court had never made any personal comments on the NIA the states conduct in the case or legal issues involved Justice Shinde further said that if the NIA wanted he was willing to take back his words on any comments he had made personally If you want I take my words back Our endeavour is to stay fair and balanced always That should be the end of the matter Justice Shinde saidOur problem is that we dont have control on what happens outside the court the HC saidSingh then said that he had no grievances with the court It was just that public perception mattered to agenciesThe Maharashtra governments counsel Aruna Pai meanwhile told the high court that the magisterial inquiry into Swamys death was yet to begin The postmortem however was conducted as per procedure she told the HCThe high court will hear the matter next on August 4Swamy died at the private Holy Family Hospital in the city on July 5 He was shifted from the Taloja prison to the private hospital following HCs intervention and was undergoing treatment there for multiple ailmentsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever