Supreme Court
Referring to the media report, Nariman, during the first round of hearing of the day, said, “This gives a new twist to the word responsible press and freedom of press”, adding that the news portal and its journalists concerned be summoned by the court.
“How can this come? It’s a leak. I myself is shattered the way it has been done,” he said.
Meanwhile, the web portal, in its tweet, said, “This is to clarify that @thewire_in stories were on Alok Verma’s responses to questions the CVC put to him. These were not in a sealed cover and were not meant for the SC. As for his response to CVC’s final report, handed over to SC in sealed cover, we haven’t seen/ reported that.” The bench also referred to Nariman about the news articles published based on the allegations levelled by CBI’s DIG Sinha in his separate plea challenging his transfer to Nagpur.
“Yesterday, we had refused the mentioning (seeking urgent listing of Sinha’s plea) and we had expressed that highest degree of confidentiality was to be maintained. But here is a litigant who mentions it before us and then goes out to distribute the petition to everyone,” a miffed CJI said.
“Our efforts to maintain the respect of this institution are not shared by these people. They are giving it to everybody,” he added.
When Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CVC, stood up to argue, the bench tersely told him, “We will not hear anything. We will not hear anybody.” The bench then told Nariman about the news articles on Sinha’s plea and said, “This is yesterday’s article. We want to know what is going on. This court is not a platform for people to come and express whatever they want. This is a place where people come for adjudication of their legal rights. This is not a platform and we will set it right.” When the matter was being re-heard, Shankaranarayanan referred to the arguments advanced by Nariman and said that he wanted to “clear his name” which has come under a “cloud”.
Shankaranarayanan said Nariman has submitted that he was not authorised to mention the matter and seek time for filing Verma’s reply without the consent of the senior lawyer.
“We are not prepared to hear Mr Gopal Shankaranarayanan. We are prepared to hear Mr Nariman only. We want this place clear. As far as this court in concerned Mr Shankaranarayanan, nobody is under any cloud,” the CJI said while refusing to hear the counsel.
Sinha on Monday dragged the names of NSA Ajit Doval, Union minister Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary and CVC K V Chowdhury over alleged attempts to interfere in the probe against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who has also been divested of his duties and sent on leave by the government along with Verma.
K V Chowdhury did not respond to queries when his reaction was sought while Doval, the National Security Advisor, was not immediately available for comments. The union minister termed the allegations as baseless and malicious.
Swaraj’s withdrawal from electoral politics does not mean the end of her political career. A BJP source said the party would send her to the Rajya Sabha after the 2019 general elections.
Two Rajya Sabha seats in BJPruled Assam are falling vacant later next year.
A BJP leader said the foreign minister, known for her oratorical skills in and outside Parliament, has had to skip campaigning in the ongoing elections on account of her health. Her long absence from the parliamentary constituency gave ammo to her rivals.
Swara’s decision was supported by her husband, former Mizoram governor Swaraj Kaushal, who tweeted, “Madam Thank you very much for your decision not to contest any more elections. I remember there came a time when even Milkha Singh stopped running.”