Supreme Court Quashes Delhi High Court Stay on Discharge of SS Wazir in TS Wazir Murder Case

The Supreme Court on Friday quashed and set aside the Delhi High Court’s decision to stay a trial court order discharging former President of Jammu and Kashmir State Gurdwara Parbandhak Board Sudershan Singh Wazir in a murder case (Sudarshan Singh Wazir v. State (NCT of Delhij].
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan ruled,
“We have held that order of stay on discharge should never be granted unless circumstances are exceptional.
Hence this Ex-parte order of stay is entirely illegal.”
Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, In November 2024, the Court had stayed the High Court decision and expressed shock over it.
“How can an order of discharge be stayed? It is completely unheard of. Absolute shocking affairs. If the Court will start staying order of discharge, then trial will proceed. How can this happen? We will have to set down the law. The manner in which power is exercise by High Court, Justice Oka had orally remarked then.
Wazir, a prominent Sikh leader, had been arrested by the Delhi Police in February 2023 in connection with the murder of former National Conference (NC) leader Trilochan Singh Wazir in September 2021.
However, he and two others were discharged by the trial court on October 20, 2023. The murder charges were framed against only one accused, Harmeet Singh.
Interestingly, the very next day after the trial court decision, the State mentioned a revision petition before the High Court. While issuing notice on the State’s plea, Justice Vikas Mahajan stayed the operation of the discharge order.
Since Wazir had already been released after he was cleared of the charges, the Delhi Police later moved an application for his surrender. The same was allowed by Justice Anish Dayal on November 4.
Wazir then moved the top court. Granting him relief, the Court had also stayed the subsequent High Court order asking him to surrender.