RTE violations: HC asks Punjab to reply on plea for CBI probe by Sept 22
The division bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry has sought response from the Punjab government by September 22 on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the KS Raju Legal Trust.
The plea challenges Rule 7(4) of the Punjab Right to Education Rules, 2011, arguing that it undermines the RTE Act, 2009, by preventing children from weaker sections from accessing private unaided schools.
The PIL further alleged that, for the past 15 years, private schools violated the reservation mandate without facing de-recognition, due to state inaction. Notably, in an earlier petition by the same trust, the court had, on February 19, 2025, ordered all private unaided schools to reserve 25% of Class 1 seats for such students and directed the state to ensure compliance from the 2025–26 session.
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NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Supreme Court Upholds Acquittal Of Surendra Koli In Nithari Case, Dismisses CBI Plea
New Delhi: After two decades, a final legal ruling has concluded one of India's most notorious criminal cases. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of India dismissed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea challenging the Allahabad High Court's 2023 acquittal of Surendra Koli, the prime accused in the gruesome 2006 Nithari serial killings, finding no perversity in the High Court's rulings. The CBI filed the plea for the Uttar Pradesh government and a victim's family, seeking to overturn the High Court's 2023 ruling that acquitted Koli because of insufficient evidence. The Court emphasized that only recoveries from places exclusively accessible to the accused can be admitted as evidence. It noted that the recovery of victims' skulls and belongings from an open drain was not based on Koli's statement, and recoveries made without recording the accused's statement are inadmissible under evidence law. The Nithari killings emerged in 2006 when human remains were found in a drain outside a Noida home. These murders shocked India due to their brutality. The case involved the killings of several children and young women and included horrifying claims of rape, cannibalism, and neglect, capturing public attention. Surendra Koli, a domestic worker, and his employer, Moninder Singh Pandher, were initially convicted. However, the Allahabad High Court acquitted them in 2023, stating that the prosecution had not proven their guilt "beyond reasonable doubt" and described the investigation as "botched up." The emotional impact on the victims' families is unfathomable. For the defence, the ruling represents a triumph of due process. Manisha Bhandari, the lawyer representing Pandher, who was also acquitted, expressed relief at the verdict. Bhandari told NDTV, "We started in 2009. In 2025, it's finally over. They filed appeals, but they've all been dismissed. I'm still processing it." The Nithari killings sparked widespread outrage and raised serious questions about investigative lapses. In its 2023 ruling, the Allahabad High Court, while overturning the death sentences given to Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases, called the probe "nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies." A total of 19 cases were lodged against the duo in 2007. The CBI filed closure reports in three cases because of insufficient evidence. Koli was found not guilty in three of the 16 remaining cases, and his death sentence in one case was changed to life imprisonment. Advocate Pramod Kumar remarked, "The suffering of the victims is undeniable and represents a significant loss to the nation. Accountability must be fixed. The investigation was not conducted properly, resulting in a lack of evidence. The courts have delivered concurrent judgments. The case has reached finality due to lapses by the prosecution and investigative agencies, which failed to meet judicial scrutiny."
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Supreme Court dismisses appeals in Nithari killings, upholds Koli's acquittal
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of Surendra Koli in nearly 12 cases of murder linked to the Nithari killings, trashing the appeals filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the victims seeking revival of conviction against him considering the gruesome nature of the crime involving the death of nearly a dozen minor girls. Surendra Koli (right). (File Photo) A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai passed the order endorsing the findings of the Allahabad high court in October 2023 that acquitted him. Even with this decision, Koli will remain in jail as he is undergoing life imprisonment in one of the Nithari killings where his conviction was upheld by the top court in 2011. The CBI, represented by additional solicitor general (ASG) Rajkumar Bhaskar Thakare told the court that the high court has refused to believe the discovery of skulls and bones outside the house where Koli was working as a servant. It was the case of CBI that he used to lure minor girls to the house. As ASG opened submissions describing the case as 'one of the darkest crimes in history', the bench, also comprising justices SC Sharma and K Vinod Chandran said, 'Don't try to prejudice the court by using such expressions. Just tell us what is the perversity in the high court judgment.' The CBI lawyer said that the high court has disbelieved the confessional statement of Koli considering that he was in custody of the police and the possibility of him being tutored. He said that the trial court which convicted Koli in the 13 cases while acquitting him in three, had extensively considered the evidence presented by CBI. The court told Thakare that being a seasoned criminal lawyer he should know that any recovery made during the investigation should be supported by a statement under Section 27 of the Evidence Act. This provision relates to recovery made pursuant to a statement recorded by an accused in police custody. Thakare told the court that the recovery of skulls, bones, slippers and clothes of the victims could not be planted by anyone. He urged the court not to go by the high court's insistence on recovery not being consistent with Section 27 but rather go by the recovery as a fact under Section 8 of the Evidence Act, which constitutes motive or preparation for any crime. The bench asserted, 'If Section 27 statement is not recorded, then the recovery should be thrown into the dustbin. The high court has disbelieved the recovery on that ground.' As Thakare sought to take the court through the evidence on record, the bench insisted, 'We will take up the appeal only if you show any perversity or impossibility in the high court order.' CJI Gavai told the law officer, ' Show us one judgment that any recovery made without recording of Section 27 is admissible. The judgment of the high court has followed this established rule of law. If you tell us to follow otherwise, nearly 100 judgments passed by me may have to be rendered per incuriam (legal term which means order passed in ignorance of law).' Senior advocate Geeta Luthra appearing for the father of one of the victims told the court that the case requires an elaborate hearing. She said that in 2011, based on the same set of evidence and confession of the accused, the top court had upheld the conviction of Koli. She pointed out that the evidence presented by the prosecution before the trial court showed the culpability of the accused and to this extent, urged the court to consider setting aside the high court decision. The crime which took place in Nithari, a village adjoining the upscale satellite town of Noida, was a sensational crime as investigations by the police and later by CBI found that Koli lured girls to the house and later sexually assaulted them. He was even accused of cannibalism. The prosecution had even discovered the weapon used to chop the bodies of his victims. Out of the 16 cases involving killing of young girls between 2005 and 2007, the police had named Koli and his employer Moninder Singh Pandher. While the trial court convicted Koli in 13 cases, Pandher was convicted in two of the 13. Pandher has been acquitted in all cases against him while in one out of the 13 cases, Koli's conviction was upheld by the top court in 2011. CBI took up the investigation of the case in 2007 and out of the 16 cases lodged by the UP Police, three resulted in acquittals by the trial court. In July 2024, the top court had issued notice on CBI appeals and had directed the entire case records from the trial court to be shared in digital form with the lawyers appearing for both sides in the matter. Incidentally, while senior advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhary appeared along with advocate Payoshi Roy for Koli, they were not called upon to make submissions as at the end of a hearing that lasted for nearly half-an-hour, the court dismissed the appeals. According to the prosecution, Koli was a servant working in the house of Pandher in Sector 31, Noida. It was the CBI case that Pandher would often call sex workers home. Watching his employer with sex workers triggered passions in the mind of Koli who enticed young victims on one pretext or the other and later raped and killed them. He then allegedly chopped the bodies, ate the torsos, and threw skulls, bones, clothes and other remains in a drain. It was at his instance that police recovered 16 skulls and clothes and slippers of the victims near the drain behind the house, the CBI had stated in its appeal.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Nithari killings: SC trashes pleas of CBI, others against acquittal of Koli, Pandher
New Delhi, In a major setback to the CBI and families of the 2006 Nithari case victims, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed as many as 14 appeals of the probe agency and some family members challenging the acquittal of Surendra Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher in the gruesome serial killings. Nithari killings: SC trashes pleas of CBI, others against acquittal of Koli, Pandher The killings came to light with the discovery of skeletal remains of eight children from a drain behind Pandher's house at Nithari in Noida, bordering the national capital, on December 29, 2006. Further digging and searches of drains in the area around Pandher's house led to more skeletal remains. Most of these remains were that of poor children and young women who had gone missing from the area. Within 10 days, the CBI took over the case and its search resulted in the recovery of more remains. A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and justices Satish Chandra Sharma and K Vinod Chandran dismissed the 14 appeals on Wednesday. Twelve pleas were filed by the CBI and the other two by Pappu Lal and Anil Haldar. "There is no perversity in the Allahabad High Court judgement... dismissed," the CJI said after a brief hearing. At the outset, the CJI asked Raja B Thakare, appearing for the CBI, and senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing the victims' family members, to show what was wrong and "perverse" with the findings of the Allahabad High Court. "Show me one judgement which says that any recovery made without recording of the statement of an accused before the police is permissible in law," the CJI asked when Luthra and the CBI counsel referred to recoveries of skulls of kidnapped children and their belongings. The bench referred to section 27 of the Evidence Act and said that recoveries made at the instance of accused and their statements made before the police can be admissible in evidence. The top court also referred to the recoveries made from a drain near the house of the accused. It said these recovered objects and materials can be attributed to the accused if the place of recovery is accessible to them only. Luthra said as many as 16 poor children went missing and skulls and other belongings of the victims were recovered from the drain. "In appeals against acquittal by the high court, you will have to show that the high court judgement was perverse," the CJI said. Section 27 allows for the admissibility of a portion of information provided by an accused in police custody that leads to the discovery of a relevant fact, even if that information amounts to a confession. According to the provision, if an accused provides information that helps police find something connected to a crime, that specific information, and only that portion, can be used as evidence. On May 4, 2024, the top court had agreed to hear pleas challenging the high court's order acquitting Koli in the case. It had also issued a notice on an appeal filed by Pappu Lal, the father of one of the victims. In his plea, Lal challenged the high court's October 16, 2023 order and arrayed only Koli as the party. Koli was the domestic help of Pandher. In the case of Lal, Pandher was acquitted by the sessions court while Koli was awarded the death penalty on September 28, 2010. The case was investigated by the CBI. On October 16, the high court pronounced verdicts on several appeals filed by Koli and Pandher, who were awarded the death penalty by the trial court. It acquitted the pair while holding that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt "beyond reasonable doubt" and that the investigation was "botched up". The verdict brought back memories of the chilling crime targeting children that came to light after skeletal remains were found behind a bungalow in Noida. Reversing the death sentence given to Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two, the high court noted the prosecution had failed to prove the guilt of both the accused "beyond reasonable doubt, on the settled parameters of a case based on circumstantial evidence" and that the probe was "nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies". Pandher and Koli were charged with rape and murder and sentenced to death in the killings that horrified the nation with its details of sexual assault, brutal murder and hints of possible cannibalism. The high court had observed that prosecution was based on the confessional statement given by Koli to the Uttar Pradesh Police on December 29, 2006, but the procedure required to be followed for recording his disclosure, leading to the recovery of biological remains i.e. skulls, bones and skeleton etc, were given a "complete go by". It allowed multiple appeals filed by Koli and Pandher, who had challenged the death sentence awarded by a CBI court in Ghaziabad. The high court noted that the prosecution's stand kept changing from time to time as it initially attributed recoveries jointly on Pandher and Koli but, over time, the "guilt was fastened exclusively" upon Koli. In all, 19 cases had been lodged against Pandher and Koli in 2007. The CBI filed closure reports in three cases due to lack of evidence. In the remaining 16 cases, Koli was earlier acquitted in three and his death sentence in one was commuted to life. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
