SC declines to transfer the petition of Dominique Lapierre

New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) The Supreme Court today dismissed two petitions filed by a French Writer, Dominique Lapierre and publisher Shekhar Malhotra seeking transfer of two cases pending in Jabalpur district courts outside the State of Madhya Pradesh.

The two cases one criminal and the other civil suit for damages have been filed by the then Superintendent of Police, Bhopal against the two, as the book contained derogatory and defamatory references against the police for mishandling the situation at the time of Bhopal Gas leak incident which took place on December 3, 1984 and left over 3000 dead and thousands permanently crippled for life.

Mr Swaraj Puri who is at present Director General of Home Guards was posted as SP Bhopal at the time of the occurrance of the tragedy.

According to the book, the death toll could have been lowered and many lives could have been saved but due to the announcement made by Mr Puri asking the people not to panic and believe in such rumours as the situation was under control and there was nothing serious. As a result people did not escape to safer places.

A bench comprising Justices K G Balakrishnan and D K Jain, however, granted liberty to the petitioner to seek permanent exemption from personal appearance in the court.

The French national had cited two reasons for seeking transfer of the two cases outside the state of Madhya Pradesh namely, Mr Puri, an IPS Officer later the DGP of the state who could influence the course of justice and secondly he was finding it difficult to come to India for attending every date of hearing as it involved lot of expenditure as well as lot of time consumed in travelling.

UNI AKS/SC BDP RP BD1805