The Supreme Court on Friday paved way for the trial of the 2015 sacrilege cases involving Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
The development comes as a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Vishwanathan vacated the stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the trial and directed Ram Rahim to file a response. The apex court was acting on the plea of the Punjab government and will now hear the matter after four weeks.
Advocate General of Punjab Gurminder Singh sought a stay on the high court order which stayed the trial in the three cases registered at Bajakhana Police Station at Faridkot in Punjab.
Noting the matter required scrutiny, the apex court issued a notice to Ram Rahim.
In February, 2023, the top court had transferred the trial against Ram Rahim and his followers in these cases from a court in Faridkot to Chandigarh.
Ram Rahim had previously moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the validity of a September 2018 notification of the state government withdrawing the cases from the CBI and sought a direction to the central probe agency to investigate.