Thread by @barandbench

#BombayHighCourt will continue hearing the plea filed by Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit challenging the cognizance taken by the Special NIA Court against him in the #MalegaonBlastCase without obtaining the requisite sanction from the government under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale had in the previous hearing sought to know from Purohit the source of a document which his lawyer relied upon while making submissions to show Purohit merely doing his official duty.

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Hearing begins.

Advocate Shrikant Shivade appearing for Purohit begins his submissions.

Justice Shinde asks the counsel to ensure they keep their arguments short and to not exceed time.

Justice Shinde: We are not saying limit within 6-7 minutes, take 15 minutes but limit within that time.

Justice Shinde asks Shivade to summarize his arguments first.

Shivade: I have shown the law and the judgments to support my contention.

I need not go beyond proving reasonable connection within the actual facts and my facts.

Shivade submits that it is just a simple case to show that I was doing my job in official duty.

Shivade refers to a page in his rejoinder affidavit.

Shivade: The question was why did I pretend to be one of the civilians?

Shivade asks the court to read the first four lines which is the reply to the question.

Justice Pitale: Who is this witness? To whom the petitioners and others were reporting?

Shivade: Yes. The letter I had shown last time, which showed that he had infiltrated in the most dangerous organisation and that recording could have gone against him.

Shivade: I was pursuing my correspondence with my superior and they knew everything about Abhinav Bharat which I told them.

Shivade: I am submitting a handwritten letter written by me to my superior which contains everything. This is the original certified copy. Along with that I am giving typed copy of that handwritten letter.

Justice Shinde: If you want us to refer to any document, then you can do so only after giving copy to other side.

Shivade: This is the certified copy of the letter which I received from my commanding supervisor. The supervisor is present in court.

Justice Shinde: if you want to rely on any document, you submit on affidvait and serve to the otherside.
If you want us to look into it and give reasons in judgment you will have to serve the otherside.

Justice Shinde: This is an open court.

Shivade: These documents are confidential.

Justice Shinde: That is your problem. If you do not want anyone to know then don’t tender it.

Justice Shinde: If you want to rely on ANY document, otherside is entitled to receive it!

Justice Shinde: If you want us to refer to any document, you serve on otherside, or we will not record your submission or document!

Shivade: It will open pandora’s box! They will start taking time. This is an old matter. This a writ jurisdiction, there are wide powers.

Justice Shinde: How long is this case pending? Why didn’t you do this before hand?

Shivade: Because there was an order.

Justice Shinde: Then why did you produce these documents?
You have appeared in leading matters in trial court.

Justice Shinde: It is simple, if you want to rely on a document, then you have to submit to the otherside.

Shivade: There are principles of natural justice and they have exceptions.

Justice Shinde: Principles apply to otherside too!

Shivade: So then I will file an affidavit.

Justice Shinde: You will be submitting at your own risk. If there is an order prohibiting your client then it is your risk. He will be submitting at his risk. You please speak to your client.

Justice Shinde: Please also do not mention in the affidavit it is directed by us, because we cannot direct this.

You speak to your client, he can seek permission from his department.

Shivade: I will serve the otherside but they should not share it with the media.

Justice Shinde: That we cannot comment on. Once something comes in public domain, we have no control over that. You can write to them, and take their consent.

Shivade: There is provision for in-camera trial under NIA Act.

Justice Shinde: But once we write the detailed judgment, it will be accessible to anyone. And we will be giving reasons. We will also have relied upon evidence submitted to us.

Senior Advocate BA Desai appearing for the victim-intervenor tries to submit a law.

Justice Shinde: If you are submitting something different from what we say, then say.

Justice Shinde: If we receive something from official sources in envelope, we will read and give it back, that is also accepted.

Shivade raises apprehension that there is issue regarding the department seeing the documents.

Justice Shinde: Mr Shivade you tender the affidavit. We will read and then decide on taking on record.

Justice Shinde gives Purohit one week’s time to file the affidavit.

Party in person and co-accused Sameer Kulkarni raises his hand seeking permission to speak.

Justice Shinde: In my short experience of 13 years I have to learn the skill as a judge to hear matters while managing time, without hurting the advocates sentiments

Justice Shinde: which is why we always ask lawyers to give written note of arguments so that in case they miss some argument in the flow, it is there in the written note.

Kulkarni intervenes and asks the Court to take his compilation of documents on record.

The others object to this.

Kulkarni requests the Court to take the compilation on record.

Justice Shinde asks NIA how many witnesses have been examined.

Advocate Sandesh Patil for NIA states that 163 witnesses have been examined.

Court informs Kulkarni that his submissions will be considered on the next hearing date after listening to the objections of the other counsel.

Hearing ends.

Matter will be taken up for hearing on March 17, 2021.