Convicted ex-minister seeks bail

chandigarh: the former punjab congress minister upinder sharma who is currently behind bars following his conviction and a sentence of life imprisonment handed down by the district and sessions judge, faridkot last month, on wednesday sought bail during the pendency of his appeal under section 389 of the criminal procedure code. the division bench comprising justices h.s.bedi and a.s.garg, which heard a preliminary submission in the matter, issued notice to the state of punjab for september 5.sharma, who was elected to the punjab vidhan sabha in the february 1992 general elections, was a minister of state under the beant singh government. a bjp-worker had died in firing, allegedly by sharma's gunman though he has denied the charge, pleading that the police opened fire on a large number of demonstrators some of whom were injured also. sharma's appeal against his conviction and sentence has already been admitted by justices bedi and garg, but he had not sought the bail at that time. sehajdhari voters the division bench of justices g.s.singhvi and m.m.kumar on wednesday dismissed as withdrawn the petition that sought directions to issue a writ of mandamus for exclusion of sehajdhari sikhs from the electoral rolls for general elections to the shiromani gurdwara prabandhak committee (sgpc) by amending the clause 10-a of section 2 of the sikh gurdwara act, 1925. justices singhvi and kumar have however permitted the petitioners, shiromani akali dal (amritsar) general secretary prof.jagmohan singh of ludhiana and baldev singh sehajada, an executive member of the sgpc from sehjada village in sangrur district, to file a fresh appeal if they want. the counsel for the petitioners submitted that the right to vote to sehajdhari sikhs was incorporated only in 1959, and was not granted in the original sikh gurdwara act of 1925. it is also not there in the delhi sikh gurdwara management (dsgm) act, the counsel argued. it however was pointed out by their lordships that they could not issue directions to the legislature. in view of this, the counsel withdrew the writ petition with permission to file a fresh one. notice to medical college the division bench of justices amarbir singh gill and swatantar kumar on wednesday issued notice for september 13 to the state of punjab as also to the dayanand medical college, ludhiana on a writ petition filed by sandeep singh, a resident of vivekanand nagar, maqsudan, jalandhar seeking direction of the court for his admission to the mbbs course against the backward classes category in view of his merit. order on uniform withdrawn the military nursing service (mns) officers have been spared of the change in uniform which was to have become effective from september 1. the circular issued by the army authorities on july 25 ,2001 containing comprehensive instructions on the new dress has been cancelled by army headquarters. this was stated before a division bench of the punjab and haryana high court here on wednesday, headed by justice j.s.khehar when the writ petition filed by major jasbir kaur and 21 other officers of the military nursing service(mns) came up for consideration.