The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday allowed the application to advance the drug case hearing and will now hear the matter on October 13.
The application for advancing the hearing from November 15 was filed by advocate Navkiran Singh and the suo motu matter came up for hearing before the special division bench of Justices Augustine George Masih and Ashok Kumar Verma.
Navkiran Singh filed the application on behalf of Lawyers for Human Rights International, contending that a sealed report contains the response of the state on a report submitted by the then special task force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu, who was asked by the HC to go through the report submitted by ED assistant director Niranjan Singh.
Advocate Singh further contended that the matter relates to the drug mafia operating in Punjab which has international links and needs to be dealt with on an urgent basis as it affected the lives of the Punjabi youth.
The sealed reports, which have been filed by Niranjan Singh, the then deputy director, Enforcement Directorate, the STF, and the state government, need to be opened and considered by this court, Navkiran submitted. The application also referred to allegations against a Punjab MLA.
