Thread by @barandbench

[House arrest of @AITCofficial leaders]

#SupremeCourt to shortly hear CBI's appeal against Calcutta High Court order of four TMC leaders accused in the #NaradaScam be placed under house arrest for the time being instead of putting them in jail under judicial custody

CBI in its appeal says #CalcuttaHighCourt failed to take note of the clear evidence of high state functionaries seeking to impede and obstruct the process of law @MamataOfficial
@AITCofficial @BJP4Bengal

barandbench.com/news/litigatio…

#CBI appeal says @AITCofficial leaders were put under #housearrest "despite knowing the grave allegations against them & more so after seeing a glimpse of how the same individuals can misuse & abuse power to disrupt the administration of justice and procedures established by law"

SG Tushar Mehta: Serious question of law is involved here.

Justice Gavai: what is the prayer? Are you aggrieved by the order of Justice Bindal or Arijit Banerjee

SG: The order I am aggrieved is in page 4

SC: If you are not aggrieved by order of Justice Arijit Banerjee then they should be released on bail (all smile)

SG: I will correct it

Senior Adv Singhvi appears for Subrata Chatterjee & Frihad Hakim & Senior Adv Siddharth Luthra appears for Madan Mitra

Senior Adv Vikas Singh appears for State of West Bengal

SG seeks to narrate facts

Justice Gavai: if West Bengal has a preliminary objection..

SG: In a matter between CBI and accused how can West Bengal be involved

Senior Adv Singh: there is no order in this case firstly, secondly as per SC notice interlocutory matters are not to be listed during vacations. Who is taking a call in this?

SC: We have noted the objections, we are hearing matter before us

SG:allow me to show undisputed facts. The order of CBI court was vacated after considering the matter. You can admit or deny but this? The accused were arrested and brought to CBI office.Information of leaders spread and huge unruly crowds gathered. crowds gheraoed the CBI office

SG: There was engineered violence by the mob to retrain CBI from conducting proceedings. Law minister go to the court and join as a party without notice. Accused admits that law minister was there to show solidarity. CM @MamataOfficial went to CBI office on Dharna

Justice Saran: What is your prayer? At page 30 there is the prayer...

SG: We are aggrieved by the order of Acting Chief Justice Bindal

Justice Saran: if we allow this plea respondents will be happy

Singhvi: that is not my best ground

SG: I don't want to be swayed by humour in this serious matter. My prayer is in the main petition at page 119. It is not just a plea of transfer.

SG Mehta: We seek transfer of the case from trial court to high court under Section 407. We also seek the proceedings which took place in CBI court as nullity in the eyes of law.

SG Mehta: a seige was laid outside CBI office. stone pelting was there. Thus we approached the High court and sought to produce them through video conferencing.

Justice Gavai: we have read the paper, make submissions on relevant points

SG Mehta reads the HC order: "The law minister was present in court complex during the day and the order passed in this situation will lead to erosion of public trust and confidence in judicial system......."

SG Mehta stresses on HC order which stayed the CBI court order and sent the accused to judicial custody.

SG: On May 19, before we could argue the order was passed. No notice was to anyone and no adjudication of facts

Justice Gavai: was an operation part of the order passed after notice to the accused person?

Senior Adv Luthra: no we were not granted any notice

SG: your lordships do it several times. it was held in 2013 too that just a reasonable opportunity is required.

SG: stone pelting was going on and the court complex had 3,000 people then. I was informed by the public prosecutor..

Justice Gavai: we will say that we don't appreciate dharna etc but if the CM or law minister is on dharna should we deny the benefit of bail to the accused?

Justice Gavai: one can proceed against officials who have taken law into their own hands

SG Mehta: you can consider having lunch now

Justice Saran: let it be late lunch and late siesta for us

SG: The bail order was stayed under extra ordinary circumstances. i can satisfy now itself how rule of law has been destroyed repeatedly in an orchestrated manner

#supremecourt

SG: now all the accused are at the comfort of their homes. This is because of the order by one judge.

Justice Gavai: As per order of the high court there are CCTVS etc. We are not in a hurry

Justice Saran: what you want from us?

SG: We are before the highest court. Till the matter is concerned let the accused be at the comfort of hospital.

Justice Gavai: HC passed an order without notice to the accused. They acted in extraordinary circumstance

Supreme Court (Justice Gavai): special bench is assigned to protect liberty. This is for the first time that a special bench was assigned to take away the liberty
#supremecourt

SG: These were extra ordinary circumstances...your lordships may have not gone through the file...

Justice Saran: we have read each and every page till 1 am..we don't support the action of the CM or the law minister but what do we do here

SG: From May 17 to May 19, there was no change in circumstances and suddenly one judge vacates the order and accused are put under house arrest. such an important matter and no notice was issued to us. Chief Minister barges into police station to help the accused

SC: the five judges are examining all the issues

SG: we will take a call on this. Please keep this matter for Friday

Justice Gavai: I have been a lawyer for 18 years. Either you grant bail or stay the bail. Here the bench gave different orders

SG: If these facts don't move you then I don't have anything else to say

Justice Gavai: we read about this in LiveLaw and Bar & Bench and at your request we took up the case today. High courts are also constitutional court. why shouldn't they look into it

SG: this may be a case to transfer the case out of west bengal

Justice Gavai: that will demoralize the High courts

SG: I am saying transfer the case out of west bengal. This is too serious a matter for notice not being issued

SG: Bail granted without any change in circumstance and then vacated. Wouldnt this court look into this. we don't press in matters which does not merit so

Justice Gavai: Mr Solicitor please come to page 95. what is CBI seeking?

SG: I have tried avoiding naming people. We could have been sarcastic.

Justice Gavai: come to page 95

SG: please see para 11

SG: Influence and arrogance of the accused was gauged since they did not submit themselves personally before the HC and lobbied the state government to allow virtual hearing. we are not only seige but the public prosecutor was arguing through mobile

Justice Gavai: are these people against whom charge sheets filed ...can they tamper the witness or evidence?

SG: This is not a legal point, I know the undertones, but I would not be able to answer

Justice Gavai: there are two sets of accused, one against whom chargesheet is filed and one against whom chargesheet is not filed. who has the ability to tamper evidence?

Justice Gavai: in so far as liberty of citizen is concerned we will have to look at orders placed before us

SG: This is such an important issue that I would not like it to be diverted to these issues

SG: when the court compound is pelted with stones and law minister is in court room then proceedings are vitiated.

Justice Saran: we have to see if bail has to be granted or not and for other issues, other remedies are there. in bail matter how far can a person go

Justice Saran: liberty of the accused has to be seen in bail plea. action of others will have to seen later

SG: remedy for taking away liberty is there but if others are barging into police stations then liberty does not lie

SC: then take an action against such officials

Justice Gavai: nobody is above the law. Whoever it may be

Senior Adv Singh interrupts..

Justice Saran: the moment you speak we will issue notice

Justice Gavai: we feel that our judiciary including our district judiciary can be influenced my mobs. we don't want to demoralize our judiciary across the country

SG: they are humans

Justice Gavai: I can give you a personal example..

SG: lets not go into this

Justice Gavai: we also have been tried to be pressurized. I was hearing a anticipatory bail plea in Aurangabad in 2013 and mahila morcha people came inside court. police asked me to not to pass orders but I passed orders in open courtroom

SG: please take up some pass over matters and let me consult

SC: If you want liberty withdraw at this stage, or we don’t know what will Singhvi or Luthra say. That’s why we wanted to give you an opportunity.

Justice Gavai: we don't possess any advisory jurisdiction...

Justice Saran: we have stopped doing so for the past 20 years

Matter to be taken end of the board

SG Mehta: please keep the matter for Friday

Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi: please hear me for 10 minutes since SG argued for 45 minutes

Justice Gavai: you are invisible. you are Mr India

Dr Singhvi: Mr Solicitor is hogging the screen also apart from hogging my time

SG Mehta: if I start speaking, you will not be able to tolerate it

Singhvi: it is on a lighter note

SG: It was not

Justice Gavai: You either withdraw it or we have to hear the other side.

#supremecourt

Dr Singhvi: I have much to say, but I’m requesting everyone on my side to not say a word.

Bench: If anything is said on merits, we will have to issue notice.

Justice Gavai: after a 5 judge bench decides we will have the opinion to peruse the opinion of the Calcutta high court

Dr Singhvi: Please ask SG Mehta to keep 45 minutes in my credit account since I did not speak at all

Dr Singhvi: I have not earned my fees so has Mr Luthra did not

Justice Gavai: please deposit it in the Solicitor General's account

ORDER

Supreme Court: We are not passing anything on merits. SG has accepted that the issues are being looked into by a 5 judge bench of Calcutta HC. Thus, permission is sought to withdraw the plea and raise all such issues before the high court. All other contentions remain open

Supreme Court: all other parties shall also have liberty to raise such contentions before the high court. it is clarified that we are not passing any order on merits.

#SupremeCourtofIndia @MamataOfficial @BJP4Bengal

Justice Saran: My vacation begins today. My brother's (Justice Gavai) is not starting yet.

Singhvi: we have deprived you the fundamental right to a decent lunch

Justice Saran: that we will have.

Bench rises..

[BREAKING] CBI withdraws appeal in Supreme Court against Calcutta High Court order granting benefit of house arrest to TMC leaders in Narada case

report by @DebayonRoy

#NaradaScam #SupremeCourtofIndia
#CalcuttaHighCourt

@AITCofficial @MamataOfficial

barandbench.com/news/litigatio…

Correction in one of the tweets in the thread:

Justice Gavai: we feel that our judiciary including our district judiciary CAN'T be influenced my mobs. we don't want to demoralize our judiciary across the country

SG: they are humans

Justice Gavai: I can give you a personal eg: