Trial against Delhi L-G in abeyance to add to pendency of cases: Court

A court here has rejected Delhi L-G VK Saxena's plea to keep the trial against him in abeyance in an assault case till he is in office, saying it doesn't want to increase the pendency of cases in Gujarat courts.

The court of additional chief judicial magistrate PN Goswami had on May 8 refused to grant relief to Saxena in the case registered against him for allegedly assaulting Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar when she was holding a peace meet at Gandhi Ashram against Gujarat riots in April 2002.

A copy of the order was made available on Friday.

This case has been going on since 2005, that is, 18 years, and will take more time ... If the trial against the accused is suspended, naturally this case will remain pending for many more years. This will only increase the pendency of old cases existing in Gujarat judiciary, the court said.

It noted that the trial against Saxena was going on since last year, and during this period, he did not request the state government to put i