Shiv Kumar Yadav, the Uber driver accused of rape, had wanted to recall and re-examine witnesses in the case.
The Supreme Court has set aside a Delhi High Court order that allowed rape-accused Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav to recall and re-examine prosecution witness in the Uber rape case. Yadav had wanted to recall 13 witnesses, including the young woman executive who had alleged rape.
The Supreme Court had stayed the Delhi High Court order in March, after a plea by the woman and Delhi Police. The woman had argued that recalling and re-examining witnesses would amount to a retrial.
The court had also restrained media from reporting statements of witnesses which were recorded after the High Court's order.
The order was set aside today by a two-judge bench comprising Justices JS Khehar and Adarsh Kumar Goel. In an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had said that Yadav was trying to "destroy criminal justice system" by seeking re-examination of the woman, who has only been "embarrassed and insulted" by him in her earlier deposition.
The top court also questioned Yadav's intention in seeking a recall of witnesses, saying the process had only delayed the trial by several months and led to harassment of the woman. It had further observed that Yadav had "misused" the process of law in doing this.
The trial is for an incident that allegedly took place in Delhi on the night of December 5, 2014. The woman, an executive for a finance firm in Gurgaon, had alleged that the driver had raped her.