Days after Supreme Court Bar Association President Dushyant Dave raised the issue of biases by the Supreme Court, another advocate, Reepak Kansal, questioned the integrity of the top court for its decision to accord special treatment to Arnab Goswami despite his defective petition. Kansal said that the quick listing of cases was not ‘for other journalists/ ordinary citizens of this country.’
In his letter to the Supreme Court Registrar General, according to Livelaw, Kansal alleged that the Registry was engaging in discrimination and irregularities, adding that Arnab Goswami’s case was given ‘special treatment’ due to his ‘influential lawyer’ Harish Salve.
Kansal went on to allege that the top court agreed to list Goswami’s case out of turn even though ‘defects persisted and that there was an unsigned vakaltnama at the time of filing.’ According to the lawyer, the Registry provided ‘a special route’ to the Republic TV founder ‘by ignoring Supreme Court Rules, 2013.’ He said that no ‘ordinary lawyer; was permitted to approach this Hon’ble Court without a signed vakalatnama.’
Last week, Dushyant Dave had raised serious questions on India’s top court’s integrity on extending preferential treatment to Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami. In a hard-hitting letter to the Supreme Court Registry, Dave had asked if the special treatment meted out to Goswami was at the behest of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde.
Advocate Reepak Kansal addresses a letter to the #SupremeCourt Secretary General, says Registry is engaging in discrimination & irregularities.
Kansal says that #ArnabGoswami’s case was given “special treatment” in matter of listing due to his “influential lawyer”.— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 16, 2020
Not only did the Supreme Court list Goswami’s case on priority, but the Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee also moved with lightning speed to grant bail to Goswami even though his bail plea was pending in a lower court.
In contrast, the Supreme Court on Monday told senior advocate Kapil Sibal to approach the lower court over the arrest of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested on 5 October by the UP Police for carrying out his duties as a journalist. He was arrested while on his way to Hathras to cover the gang-rape and death of a 19-year-old Dalit girl.