A bench of SS Shinde and MS Karnik judges heard from senior advisers Harish Salve for Goswami and Kapil sibal for the Mumbai State and Police, including Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. The HC recorded Salve’s statement that if the investigating officer issues a subpoena to Goswami in the PRT case, he will “honor the subpoena and appear before the police officer and cooperate.” The HC, however, ordered the IO to present before November 4 in a sealed cover the details of the investigation carried out thus far and published the matter for the final hearing on November 5.
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Goswami had asked the HC to annul the FIR in which he has not yet been identified, alleging “bad fides” on the part of the Mumbai police. “Tomorrow they can call him and arrest him, we don’t know,” Salve said and requested a provisional order against the coercive measures. To this, Sibal said, “I strongly oppose that.” Salve then applied for a provisional warrant to protect Goswami from arrest “without permission from the court.” Sibal said that Goswami “is not a special person. He is an ordinary person ”, adding that he does not have the right to special privileges as a journalist when his name is not even in the FIR. Sibal said that Goswami can always request an advance bond. Sibal said that the accusations of bad faith in this “incipient stage of the investigation” cannot be grounds for provisional measures.
Judge Shinde, during the videoconference hearing, which Salve connected to from the UK and Sibal from Delhi, said: “We see officers come forward to the media on sensitive issues and reveal incriminating material. . an agent should not disclose. “Sibal said that he himself has” raised this issue. “He noted:” But media tests are also carried out on some TV channels, like this … this (test of the media) has been disapproved by the SC several times. ”
Sibal argued: “If you target a police officer, what should he do? Other media channels then go to the police officer and seek his reaction. “Sibal said:” The right to freedom of expression under article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution does not protect you from an investigation. “Hail cited previous FIRs against Goswami related to the coverage of the Palghar lynching case. “A lot of FIRs have come forward,” he said, noting how he had gone to the SC, which issued protection orders as there were several identical FIRs housed everywhere, before asking Goswami to approach the HC. On June 30, the HC had suspended the FIR investigation.
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