Navjot singh sidhu history

A timeline of Navjot Singh Sidhu’s case

1988: On December 27, Navjot Sidhu and co-accused Rupinder Singh Sandhu alias Bunny were in a Gypsy when they had an altercation with Gurnam Singh, a Patiala resident, after he asked the duo to give way. The incident took place near Sheranwala Gate in Patiala, Sidhu’s hometown. Police said that 65-year-old Gurnam was beaten up by Sidhu, who later fled the crime scene. Gurnam was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

1999: In September, the trial court acquitted Sidhu and Bunny.

2006: In December, Punjab and Haryana High Court holds Sidhu and Bunny guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentences them to three years in jail.

2007: Sidhu and Bunny challenge the high court verdict in the Supreme Court, which stays the conviction pending appeal.

2018: Supreme Court holds Sidhu guilty for voluntarily causing hurt to Gurnam, reversing the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict, and acquits Sidhu from culpable homicide not amounting to murder charge. In a verdict on May 15, 2018, Sidhu is fined Rs 1,000 under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code. The SC takes into account that the incident was 30 years old, there was no enmity between the accused and deceased and that no weapon was used by the accused.

2018: Gurnam’s family moves Supreme Court with a review petition to treat the offence as more serious than just causing hurt and seeks punishment. Supreme Court accepts petition in September 2018.

2022: On May 19, Supreme Court awards one-year jail term to Navjot Singh Sidhu.

SC: “some material aspects previously missed”

The Supreme Court sentenced Sidhu to a year in prison while deciding a review petition in a 1988 road rage case.

In the apex court, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul had said “some material aspects which were required to be taken note of appear to have been somehow missed out at the stage of sentencing”.

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The bench said there was “error apparent on the face of the record needing some remedial action”. It said “indulgence was not required to be shown at the stage of sentence by only imposing a sentence of fine and letting the respondent go without any imposition of a sentence”.

The court pointed out that Sidhu, at the time, “was an international cricketer, who was tall and well built and aware of the force of a blow that even his hand would carry” during the altercation that led to Gurnam Singh’s death in Patiala on December 27, 1988.

“The blow was not inflicted on a person identically physically placed but a 65-year-old person, more than double his age,” it said, adding that Sidhu “cannot say that he did not know the effect of the blow or plead ignorance on this aspect”. The “hand can also be a weapon by itself where say a boxer, a wrestler or a cricketer or an extremely physically fit person inflicts the same”, it said.

The court said that while a disproportionately severe sentence should not be passed, a “manifestly inadequate” sentence “would fail to produce a deterrent effect on the society at large”.

Social goal of sentencing

It said that “any undue sympathy to impose an inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system and undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law”. “The society cannot long endure under serious threats and if the courts do not protect the injured, the injured would then resort to private vengeance,” the bench, adding that the punishment “should conform to and be consistent with the atrocity and brutality with which the crime has been perpetrated”.

Pointing to the need for proportionality, it said “the sentencing philosophy for an offence has a social goal that the sentence has to be based on the principle that the accused must realise that the crime committed by him has not only created a dent in his life but also a concavity in the social fabric”.

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The court said criminal jurisprudence has with passage of time also laid emphasis on victimology, “which fundamentally is a perception of a trial from the viewpoint of the criminal as well as the victim”. “Both are viewed in the social context and, thus, victims’ rights have to be equally protected,” it said.

“Thus, when a 25 year old man, who was an international cricketer, assaults a man more than twice his age and inflicts, even with his bare hands, a severe blow on his (victim’s) head, the unintended consequence of harm would still be properly attributable to him as it was reasonably foreseeable,” the bench said.

“A disproportionately light punishment”, said the court, “humiliates and frustrates a victim of crime when the offender goes unpunished or is let off with a relatively minor punishment as the system pays no attention to the injured’s feelings”.

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“Indifference to the rights of the victim of crime is fast eroding the faith of the society in general and the victim of crime in particular in the criminal justice system,” the bench said.

A changed man

Even though Sidhu made it to the list of convicts eligible for special remission under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, he was kept in prison till he served his full term. In the meantime, Sidhu’s namesake wife, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu,  was diagnosed with second stage cancer and underwent a surgery when Sidhu was lodged in jail.

An aide of Sidhu told The Indian Express, “He is completely a changed man now. You will all see. Also, the axe of 35-year-old road rage case, that kept hanging is finally over.”

Uncertainty over Sidhu’s political career

While in jail, Sidhu had refused to meet several Congress leaders and only allowed visits by a handful of his aides.

His release comes a few weeks before the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election, scheduled on May 10. The seat was vacated due to the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary during AICC leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. Congress hopes to win the seat back. However, it remains to be seen what role would be given to Sidhu.