Attack on CJI - Case pending for 37 years
ON March 20, 1975, at about 4.15 p.m when the car in which Mr. Justice A.N. Ray, the then Chief Justice of India, was travelling, along with his son Shri Ajoy Nath Ray and a Jamadar Jai Nand and the driver Inder Singh, stopped at the intersection of Tilak Marg and Bhagwan Dass road, at a stone throw distance from the Supreme Court of India, two live hand grenades were lobbed inside the car. Fortunately, the grenades did not explode and the occupants of the car, including the Chief Justice of India, escaped unharmed.
About two and a half months before the attempt on the life of the Chief Justice, the Minister of Railways in the Union Cabinet Shri L.N. Mishra was killed in a bomb blast during a function on the platform of Samastipur Railway Station. In connection with that case, Sudevanand Avadhoot and one Vikram alias Jaladhar Das were arrested at Bhagalpur. On July 27, 1975 they were also arrested in the case relating to the attempt on the life of the Chief Justice and were brought to Delhi where they were sent on police remand from July 31, 1975 to August 14, 1975.
The case is pending in appeal.
Yesterday while disposing an appeal related to the case, the Supreme Court observed,
"Before parting with the record of the case, we are constrained to say that we are distressed beyond words to find that the case relating to the attempt on the life of the CJI remains stuck up at the stage of the appeal even after about 37 years of the occurrence. We are informed that the other case of the killing of Shri L.N. Mishra is still mired before the trial court. We would request the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court with all the strength at our command to take notice of the inordinately long time for which these appeals are pending before the High Court and to put a tab on them so as to ensure that the appeals are disposed of without any further delay."
Is there any point in punishing a 70 year old man for a crime he committed 40 years ago?