Prosecution rejects Delhi riots case accused’s plea to know probe status

The prosecution concluded its arguments on Friday against the applications filed by some of the people accused of hatching the conspiracy behind the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, seeking to know the status of the probe in the case, saying those were not maintainable.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat posted the matter on October 3 for rebuttal by the counsel for the accused applicants.
During the proceedings, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad cited a judgment and said, “A different and not less well-recognised rule, namely, where a power is given to do a certain thing in a certain way, the thing must be done in that way or not at all. Other methods of performance are necessarily forbidden.” He said this doctrine of law is settled and has been followed consistently by the Supreme Court and all other courts consistently.
“So when the right is not given to the accused in the garb of this application, they cannot design a new procedure. Therefore, the maintainability of the application goes through the roof,” Prasad said.
“Unless and until they (the counsel for the accused) are able to demonstrate that the application itself is maintainable, they cannot go beyond that. So I would not go beyond arguing for maintainability,” he added.