New Delhi: As the Supreme Court scheduled hearing of Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami's plea challenging the Bombay High Court's rejection of his interim bail plea, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president and Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave has written a letter to the Secretary General of the court lodging protest over the 'extraordinary urgent listing'.
A vacation bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee has decided to consider the petition of Goswami, who has been under custody after arrested in a suicide abetment case, on Wednesday.
Dave pointed out that Goswami's petitions are given urgent priority while other similarly placed litigants are kept waiting. He also asked if there was a special direction from the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde himself to list petitions by the journalists urgently.
"While thousands of citizens remain in jails, languishing for long periods while their matters before the Supreme Court are not getting listed for weeks and months, it is, to say the least, deeply disturbing, how and why every time Mr. Goswami approaches the Supreme Court, his matter gets listed instantly. Is there any special Order or Direction from Honble the Chief Justice of India and the Master of the Roaster in this regard ?" Dave has asked.
"It is quite well known that such extraordinarily urgent listings of matters cannot and does not take place without specific orders from Honble the Chief Justice . Or is it that as the Administrative Head you or the Registrar listing is giving special preference to Shri Goswami?" Dave's letter said.
The senior advocate reminded the Secretary General that ""even someone like P Chidambaram, a respected Senior Advocate, could not get similar speedy listing and had to spend long months in jail till finally the Hon'ble Supreme Court declared that he deserved to be bailed out."
Dave requested to install foolproof system to ensure urgent listing on well-known principles and that Goswami's matter should not be heard tomorrow till the court has listed all the matters filed by various Advocates on Record with urgent listing requests prior to November 10.