SCBA President Lodges Protest With SC Over 'Selective' & 'Urgent' Listing' Of Arnab Goswami's Case

Goswami’s bail plea will be taken up for hearing on Wednesday before a vacation bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee.

(File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Tuesday wrote to the Secretary General of the top court lodging 'strong protest' on 'selective listing' of Republic TV's Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami’s interim bail plea in the 2018 case of alleged abetment to suicide of an interior designer, before a vacation bench on November 11. According to report, Goswami’s bail plea will be taken up for hearing on Wednesday before a vacation bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee. In his letter to Supreme Court, SCBA president Dushyant Dave clarified that he has nothing personal against Goswami and he is not writing this letter to anyway interfere in with his rights to move the top court as like all citizens, journalist also has right to seek justice from the highest court. "The serious issue here is selective listing of matters that the registry under your leadership is indulging in for last eight months during COVID pandemic. While thousands of citizens remain in jails, languishing for long periods while their matters filed before the Supreme Court are not getting listed for weeks and months, it is, to say the least, deeply disturbing as to how and why every time Goswami approaches the Supreme Court, his matter gets listed instantly," Dave said in his letter. “Is there any special order or direction from the Chief Justice of India and the Master of the Roaster in this regard?”  SCBA chief further questioned in his letter. Dave also pointed out that it is quite well known that such “extraordinarily urgent listings” of matters cannot and does not take place without specific orders from the Chief Justice. He also said that even someone like former union minister P Chidambaram, could not get similar "speed listing and had to spend long months in jail till finally the Supreme Court declares that he deserved to be bailed out". "So, likes of Goswami gets special treatment while ordinary Indians are made to suffer, including Imprisonment, which are many times illegal and unauthorised," Dave pointed out. The top court will take up the plea at 10.30 a.m. In a major setback for Goswami, the Bombay High Court declined to entertain his interim bail plea and asked him to apply for regular bail before the trial court. Goswami's team has already filed its bail plea before the Alibaug court on Monday - a day after he was shifted from a school there to the Taloja Central Jail on November 8. The Republic TV head was arrested on November 4 in connection with the double-suicide case of architect Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik on May 5, 2018 for alleged non-payment of his dues by Goswami, and two other creditors, Feroze Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda. Naik's widow Akshata Naik and their daughter Adnya Naik, have filed a separate plea seeking a reinvestigation into the case or transferring it to an independent agency for probe.