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A petition has been filed before Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court order allowing bail to Ashish Mishra, the key accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri Violence case. 

The plea filed by Advocate Shiv Kumar Tripathi has sought cancellation of the bail stating that "the concept of fairness in action and the postulate of 'justice not only done but seem to be done' still remains a far cry."

While challenging the High Court order Tripathi has alleged that the order is liable to be questioned in its wisdom because the concerned Union Minister of State (Home) namely Ajay Mishra Teni named as accused in FIR is yet to be interrogated by the prosecution.

Whereas, it further added that "the non-examination of the said Union Minister by the newly constituted SIT/Police is contra to the letter and spirit of the Apex Court directions."

Referring to para 23 of the High Court order the plea has stated that "How could the learned High Court Justice rest his reasoning on presumption and guess work using the word “might” to arrive at a conclusion that the said crime culminated in a possibility of the driver trying to speed up the vehicle to save himself.

It has further stated that there is a reasonable apprehension that no effective role was discharged by the newly formed SIT Police/Prosecution in opposing the bail applications by the accused as named in FIR. "It appears that the police and the prosecution displayed lethargy in bringing the culprits to justice to such an extent that certain prosecution loopholes came to be developed for want of appropriate stricter steps to conserve and preserve the material evidence," the plea added.

In addition to this, the plea has further sought direction to the SIT to show cause as to why things delayed with victim families desperately looking for some succor in their quest for socio-economic justice.

It has also sought direction to the State Government to release compensatory allowance plus damages to the families of the victims.

The bench of Justice Rajeev Singh on February 10, 2022, had pronounced the judgment which had been reserved on January 18. Earlier, the bail pleas of Mishra and two others had been rejected by the Lakhimpur Kheri District and Sessions court on November 15, 2021.

In the October 3 case, a total of 14 people have been made accused and out of those currently, 13 accused, including Mishra, are lodged in the district jail. The proceedings in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case(s) are going on before the District Court in which Uttar Pradesh Police had filed an exhaustive chargesheet running into 5000 pages on January 3.

Case Title: IN RE: VIOLENCE IN LAKHIMPUR KHERI (UP) LEADING TO LOSS OF LIFE