New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a five-member committee, headed by former apex court judge Indu Malhotra, to probe into the security breaches during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Punjab.
A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana also appointed Inspector General of National Investigation Agency, Director General of Police, Chandigarh, Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court and Additional DGP (Security) Punjab as members.
Who is Indu Malhotra?
Indu Malhotra joined the legal profession in 1983 and was enrolled in the Bar Council of Delhi. In 1988 he qualified as an advocate-on-record in the Supreme Court, and stood first in the examination, for which he was awarded the Mukesh Goswami Memorial Award on National Law Day.
Malhotra was appointed as Standing Counsel for the State of Haryana in the Supreme Court from 1991 to 1996. He has represented various statutory corporations before the Supreme Court including Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). In 2007, he was named a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court of India.
She became the second woman to be nominated by the Supreme Court after a gap of more than 30 years. He has been appointed amicus curiae in certain cases by various benches of the Supreme Court. Recently, he was appointed as an amicus curiae to restore Jaipur as a heritage city.
After serving as a legal counsel in the Supreme Court for 30 years, Malhotra was unanimously recommended for appointment as a Supreme Court judge. His appointment was confirmed and ordered by the Government on 26 April 2018; She was the first woman judge to be directly promoted from the bar. Malhotra retired on 13 March 2021.
The top court directed the registrar general of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to immediately make available all the seized documents relating to security arrangements by the Punjab government to the panel chief for the Prime Minister’s visit on January 5.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said the panel is expected to file its report soon.
On January 5, due to the blockade by the protesters in Ferozepur, the Prime Minister’s convoy was stuck on the flyover, after which he returned from Punjab without attending any rally.