Narada case: Hearing adjourned till Thu
CURIOUS CASE OF 7-YR-OLD SC ORDER
After a marathon hearing over the Narada Sting scam case for over 2 hours, the division bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal (acting) and Arijit Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court will continue hearing on Thursday at 2 pm.
As per TMC leader Madan Mitra’s lawyer Niranjan Bhattacharya, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has purposely delayed the matter so they can keep the stay over bail order on the 4 TMC leaders.
“We have applied to vacate the stay on the bail of the arrested TMC leaders and the application has been accepted but Tushar Mehta purposely prolonged the case by going slow,” said the lawyer.
The CBI, however, was heard to keep the stay on bail as, according to them, if released the heavyweight TMC leaders might influence the witnesses. HC sources said the solicitor general had time-and-again appealed in the court the CBI couldn’t
The
hearing before the Calcutta High Court in the Narada case relating to the arrest of four TMC leaders witnessed an interesting submission by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra. Luthra, who was appearing for the accused, said the CBI is continuing to function based on an interim order passed by the SC 7 years ago. “CBI is operating based on a stay order of the Supreme Court. It is hanging on that stay order. If that stay order goes...” he said. The argument was made after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, said the agency was stopped from discharging its duty by the TMC workers and leaders by way of an "orchestrated" effort. Luthra, however, did not expand much on his submission or explain which SC order he was referring to. A deeper dive reveals Luthra was hinting at an order passed by the top court over 7 years ago by which it stayed a ruling of the Gauhati HC holding the CBI to be unconstitutional. The HC had on November 6, 2013 ruled a 1963 resolution of the Union government constituting the CBI was unconstitutional and the CBI can be constituted only through a statute. The Centre had then rushed to the SC, and after an urgent at the residence of then CJI P Sathasivam on a Saturday afternoon, obtained a stay on the High Court judgment. —Bar and Bench
probe them on May 17 as TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee kept on shouting and interrupted the investigation.
“The presence of TMC ministers and party chief Mamata Banerjee had a control over the investigation and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee also interrupted the probe, so shifting the investigation to other state will help the
agency,” said the sources, adding the solicitor general questioned the logic behind Mamata’s presence at Nizam Palace for 6 hours and West Bengal law minister Malay Ghatak’s presence at Bankshall Court during the probe.
Notably, CBI added Mamata, Kalyan Banerjee and Law Minister Maloy Ghatak as parties in the ongoing case.
The sources said counsels Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Siddharth Luthra on Wednesday sought a bail for the arrested leaders on the health ground, but were refused.
“The counsels claimed if the heavyweight TMC leaders had to influence witnesses or run away from West Bengal, they could have done so long back but the CBI is forcefully trying to detain them. Citing age and health issues, they sought bail of the leaders, which wasn’t granted,” added the sources.
Incidentally, the arrested TMC leaders Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and former TMC minister Sovan Chatterjee continued to be in judicial custody even on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, CBI to send letter to West Bengal Assembly speaker Biman Bandhopadhyay over quizzing of the other leaders seen in the Narada sting operation — TMC leaders Prasun Banerjee, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Saugata Roy and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.