SC to review ruling on 32-year-old case named Navjot Sidhu

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will review its own verdict in a road rage case featuring Congress leader Navjot Sidhu, 32 years back, and examine whether he has to face heavier charges, NDTV reported.

The top court had served Punjab Congress notice and has given two weeks' time to respond.

Appearing for the victim in the case, Advocate Sidharth Luthra demanded the court to punish the leader for graver charges.

However, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, representing Sidhu, argued that the initial application from the petitioner was not about the nature of the crime but the quantum of Sidhu's sentence. He questioned why the case was brought back after many years since the incident.

The petitioner had filed a plea seeking a review on the top court's ruling in May 2018, acquitting Sidhu in a 1988 road rage case where a native of Patiala, Gurnam Singh, had died. SC had turned down the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling convicting Sidhu of culpable homicide and sentenced him to three years imprisonment. However, SC had found him guilty of "voluntarily" hurting a senior citizen and awarded him Rs 1000 fine, sparing him of jail term.

The court took the review petition in September 2018, filed by the family of the dead man. SC had issued Sidhu notice then.