ISRO spy case: SC to hear ex-scientist's plea in August

The Supreme Court today said it would hear in August a plea of an former ISRO scientist, discharged in the ISRO espionage case, seeking action against former DGP Siby Mathews and others who were part of an SIT which had probed the matter.

"Let the matter be listed in first week of August," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar said.

The 76-year-old former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan has filed an appeal against the judgement of division bench of the Kerala High Court which had said no action was required to be taken against the former DGP and two retired Superintendents of Police, K K Joshua and S Vijayan, who were held allegedly responsible by the CBI for his illegal arrest.

He has said the division bench had "failed to appreciate the real undercurrent that passed through the mind of the apex court, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the single judge of high court in their verdict and on untenable reasons, quashed the order of the single judge".

The apex court had in 1998 granted compensation of Rs one lakh to Narayanan and others who were discharged in the case and directed the state government to pay the amount.

Later, Narayanan had approached NHRC claiming compensation against the state government for mental agony and torture suffered by him.

The NHRC, after hearing both sides and taking into account the apex court judgement of April 29, 1998 awarded an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakh on March 14, 2001.

Challenging the legality of the high court's division bench order, he had said it was "bad in law" and sought an interim stay contending that "the illegality in the judgement impugned, if allowed to perpetuate, would only encourage the unlawful action and mindset on the part of the Kerala police to harass innocent persons for extraneous considerations.

"And unless action as suggested by the CBI is immediately taken, (possibly under the provisions of Section 195 of the IPC if for any justifiable reason departmental action could not be taken), the innocent public would suffer at the hands of the Police."

Narayanan has said it was hence "appropriate that the impugned judgement of March 4, 2015 of the High Court of Kerala... is stayed and the State Government initiate action as deemed necessary during the pendency of this SLP."

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)