Before issuing notice to the state government and others, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant posed tough questions to advocate MS Arya, appearing for one Deepti Mishra whose husband was allegedly killed.
The bench was of the view that there were no specific allegations against her uncle in the FIR, which merely said that they opposed the marriage.
The advocate said that Deepti Mishra’s uncle Manikant Mishra and two sons were involved in the assault and there were previous incidents also, for which several complaints were registered by the victim.
The bench said, “This is an honour killing matter and we don’t take it lightly”.
It, however, said, “Should we entertain this plea merely on the ground that respondent number two (Manikant Mishra) opposed the marriage. There is no specific allegation. There are no specific allegations. FIR does not say that he was there at the time of the incident or he was the conspirator.”
The bench said that it cannot say that everyone from the family should be in jail and it has to separate the grain from the chaff.
The Supreme Court initially said that it will not interfere in it but MS Arya tried to persuade the bench and pointed out a series of incidents of threatening and assault reported by the victim just before the incident of murder.
The bench said, “Ok, we will issue notice. Notice to respondent number two (Manikant Mishra) should be served through the local police station.”
According to the plea filed by Deepti Mishra, through advocate CK Rai, the case pertains to “honour killing” wherein her husband was killed by her relatives only for the reason that he belonged to the Dhobi caste and was married to a Brahmin girl.
The Allahabad High Court had on December 17, last year granted bail to Manikant Mishra, who was the paternal uncle to Deepti Mishra and was allegedly involved in the conspiracy to kill her husband.
With inputs from NDTV
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