New Delhi: The Supreme Court decided Tuesday to hear June 25 the appeals of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state Law Minister Moloy Ghatak against the June 9 order of the Calcutta High Court which had refused to take on record their affidavits on the CBI’s transfer plea related to the Narada scam case.
The appeals, initially listed before a vacation bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, were referred to another bench by Chief Justice NV Ramana during the day itself after Justice Bose recused from the hearing without citing any reason. A bench of Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheswari, to which the cases were referred, took up the matter in the afternoon.
At outset, Justice Saran said that the matters are fresh for the bench and they needed to go through the files before the hearing.
On being pointed out that earlier the top court had requested the high c urt to defer the hearing till it decides the appeals, the bench said that it would pass the same order urging the high court to postpone the scheduled hearing there June 23 and wait for two more days.
The bench then enquired from Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, and senior Advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Vikas Singh, whether they will be able to conclude the arguments Friday. The lawyers answered in the affirmative.
“The Supreme Court had noted earlier on June 18 that the High Court may not take up the matter on 21 and 22. Since the matter could not be taken up today, we hope the High Court will not take up the matter on any date prior to the 25th,” the bench said in the order.
The top court was scheduled to hear three appeals including that of the West Bengal government challenging the high court’s denial for filing of affidavits by Banerjee and Ghatak in their role on the day of arrest of four Trinamool Congress leaders May 17 by CBI in the case.
It has been alleged that the Bengal ruling party leaders played a key role in stopping the CBI from performing its legal duty after arresting four leaders in the case.
Initially, the state government and the law minister had moved the top court with their appeals and later the chief minister filed her plea against the June 9 order of the high court.
The top court on June 18 had requested the high court to hear the case a day after the apex court considered the appeals of the state government and Ghatak against the order.
