Senior lawyer and Supreme Court Bar Association President Dushyant Dave on Tuesday sought to know from the Supreme Court registry how a bail appeal filed by Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami was listed urgently for a hearing on Wednesday when similar cases have been pending for months, Bar and Bench reported.
Earlier in the day, Goswami had moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court’s decision denying him interim bail in a case of abetting suicide. The matter will be heard by a bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud on Wednesday.
Goswami is currently in judicial custody at the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai after he was arrested on November 4.
In a strongly-worded letter to the Supreme Court secretary-general, Dave said such extraordinarily urgent listings “cannot and does not take place” without specific orders from the Chief Justice of India. Dave sought to know if there was such a direction or if the secretary-general or the registrar of listing was giving special preference to Goswami.
Dave alleged that the selective listing of matters that the Supreme Court registry was indulging in for the last eight months during the Covid-19 pandemic was a matter of serious concern. “Why is this selective listing taking place when the system is supposedly computerized and is to work automatically?” he asked.
He then urged that Goswami’s plea should not be taken up till all petitions with urgent hearing requests filed before November 10 are heard.
