Mandsaur Farmer Protest Shooting| Supreme Court Issues Notice In Plea Seeking Tabling Of Jain Commission Report Before MP Assembly

The Supreme Court today agreed to consider the challenge against the Madhya Pradesh High Court's refusal to direct the production of the Jain Commission Report regarding the 2017 Mandsaur protest shootings before the assembly The bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice in a plea challenging the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which dismissed a petition seeking tabling of the Jain Commission report on the 2017 Mandsaur farmer shooting incident before the legislative assembly. Before the High Court, the petitioner contended that under Section 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act of 1952, the State Government was required to present the findings to the legislative assembly within six months. Notably, the High Court in its order had noted no member of the assembly demanded for the report,as s/he could have done under the settled decisions of the Supreme Court; the upper limit of 6 months for producing the report had lapsed years ago; the 1952 Act does not prescribe any consequences for non-production of such a report within the timeframe of 6 months. The main contentions raised in the SLP by the petitioners are: the principle of 'delays and laches' would not apply in the instance of PIL, "since the public cause and constitutional right are imperishable much less by the efflux of time"; S.3 of the 1952 Act is of a mandatory nature, creating a compulsory obligation on the Government to have the inquiry report tabled in time.