Is Supreme Court Swayed By 'Narratives' Against ED's 'Overreach'? CJI Gavai Responds

During a hearing regarding the ED summoning lawyers, Solicitor General Mehta raised concerns about narratives maligning institutions. Chief Justice Gavai responded that the Supreme Court doesn't rely on news or YouTube, focusing on case facts.

File Photo of Chief Justice B R Gavai

Source : PTI

New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) In response to a remark asking the Supreme Court not to be swayed by the "narratives" against the central probe agency, Enforcement Directorate, Chief Justice B R Gavai on Monday said the court did not watch news or YouTube interviews.

A bench of CJI Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran was hearing a suo motu case over the ED summoning senior lawyers Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal for rendering legal opinions to their respective clients.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, shared concerns and said the issue had been taken up at the highest level and the probe agency asked to not issue notices to the lawyers for rendering legal advice.

Mehta, however, pointed out attempts to malign institutions by creating false narratives.

"As far as general observations are concerned, sometimes misconstrued, depending upon individual cases. I am saying this, not the ED, there is a concerted effort to create a narrative against an institution. My lords may find in a few cases where there is overstepping…,” the solicitor general said.

"We are finding this (overstepping by ED) in many cases, it is not like we are not finding,” the CJI said.

CJI Gavai, who was indisposed a week ago, added, “We don’t watch the news; haven’t seen YouTube interviews. Only last week I managed to watch a few movies."

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)