HITESH SHANTILAL MEHTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LEAVE to amend in terms of the draft. Amendment to be carried out within one week. This petition has been filed by one Hitesh S. Mehta to challenge the constitutional validity of the Special Court (Trial of Offences relating to Transactions in Securities) Ordinance, 1992 and the Notification dated 8th June, 1992 issued by the 2nd respondent under section 3 (2) of the Ordinance notifying the name of the petitioner under that section.

(2.) THE petitioner is a qualified surgeon. He has an M. S. Degree in General Surgery which he acquired in January, 1988, and presently he is employed as a lecturer in the Department of Surgery and Surgical Gastroenterology at the Nair Hospital. He is also the brother of Harshad Mehta, Ashwin Mehta and Sudhir Mehta against whom proceedings are taken before the Special Court. The petitioner has challenged the provisions of the Special Court (Trial of Offences Relating to Transaction in Securities) Ordinance, 1992 (hereinafter referred to as "the Ordinance" ).

(3.) ACCORDING to the petitioner the classification of offences which are required to be dealt with under the Ordinance is wholly arbitrary and without any rational basis. Under section 3 (2) of the Notification the offences which are referred to are those relating to transactions in securities after the 1st day of April 1991 and on or before the promulgation of this Ordinance, that is to say, 6th June 1992.