Friday, January 28 2005 14:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Union Tourism Minister Renuka Choudhary, facing charges of assaulting a police constable in New Delhi 11 years ago, has failed to get any relief from a Delhi court which refused to recall the summon issued to her.

Citing a recent Supreme Court judgement, Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Siddharth Sharma said that Magistrates do not have the power to recall their summoning order.

The court has now fixed February 9 for hearing arguments on the charges to be framed.

Delhi Police had registered a case against Choudhary, then a Rajya Sabha member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), on January 20, 1993, for allegedly assaulting a Head Constable who was on duty along the then Prime Minister's route.

The FIR registered at Chanakyapuri police station said that traffic was being diverted at the Teen Murti Marg-Kautilya Marg-Shanti Path intersection that day as the Prime Minister's convoy was scheduled to pass along.

At that time Choudhary came there driving a Contessa car. She refused to heed the police advice. Instead she got out of the car and "kicked and slapped" Head Constable Janaki Ram, who had asked her to stop the vehicle, the FIR alleged. Later on, learning that she was an MP, police had allowed her to go.

In May 1993, police filed a chargesheet against her, but a Metropolitan Magistrate declined to accept it unless Choudhary was arrested.

Police moved the Sessions Court against the MM's order and on July 13, 2000, the same was set aside and the case sent back to MM's court, which took cognizance of the chargesheet and summoned her.