SC denies petition seeking details of Netaji's disappearance

The Supreme Court Tuesday declined to hold an immediate hearing on a petition seeking directions to the government to furnish details on the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

While declining to hold the hearing, the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha told PIL petitioner advocate M.L. Sharma to make an application for an urgent hearing of his plea.

The court remained unmoved as Sharma told the court that the government was going to confer Bharat Ratna on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Aug 15 and before that is done, the government should make public the report of a Justice Mukherjee committee that inquired into the mysterious disappearance of Netaji.

The PIL petitioner has sought direction to government to file copy of the entire correspondence and documents, pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose lying with the British government and to declare the treaty between India and the British Government regarding Subhas Chandra Bose as illegal and void in the interest of the general public.

The PIL said that despite several demands, agitations and representations, the government has not released information about his life status.

Meanwhile, apex court lawyer Bijan Ghosh, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said that an earlier 1992 move to confer Bharat Ratna on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was given up after he (Ghosh) moved the court opposing it.

Ghosh said he had in a PIL opposed conferment of Bharat Ratna on Netaji contending that under the cover of conferring top civilian award on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose amounted to issuing a death certificate and sealing the people's right to know "where and when" he had died.

The letter to Modi said: "Not an award of Bharat Ratna but the disclosure of total information pertaining to Netaji would be a more precious gift to all freedom fighters of the world..."

Ghosh said: "It does not matter that Netaji was declared an International War Criminal for helping Nazi war criminals in escaping or harbouring them or for any other reason -- what matters more is that we, the people of India, have a right to know about the whole truth about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose."