Satya prakash
Tribune news service
New Delhi, November 24
Faced with a contempt process for threatening Arnab Goswami for moving to the Supreme Court for the privilege violation process initiated against the editor-in-chief of Republic TV, the Deputy Secretary of the Maharashtra Assembly said on Tuesday that the controversial letter was issued. at the request of the president.
Chief Defender Dushyant Dave, representing the Maharashtra Assembly Deputy Secretary, told a court, headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, that no contempt was expressed as there was no attempt to obstruct the administration of justice in sending the letter to Arnab.
On behalf of Arnab, lead attorney Harish Salve urged the high court to issue a notice to the president.
Dave objected to Salve’s submission even as Amicus Curiae Arvind Datar supported issuing a notice to the Speaker, as the Assistant Assembly Secretary was only acting as an agent for the Speaker.
“The president should not argue tomorrow that he was not heard by this court,” the CJI said, adjourning the matter for two weeks.
On November 6, the Supreme Court had issued a notice of contempt to the secretary of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for threatening Arnab Goswami for transferring to court for the privilege violation proceeding brought against the editor-in-chief of Republic TV.
“Can any authority in the country sanction someone for going to this court? This is in the teeth of article 32. How dare this officer write something like this in his letter? “the leading Bench had asked.
“We have a serious question about the author of this letter and it is extremely difficult for us to ignore it,” the CJI had said.
The Court had appointed Chief Defender Arvind Datar as amicus curiae and published the matter for a further hearing after two weeks.
An angry CJI had told senior defender AM Singhvi, representing the Maharashtra government, to investigate the conduct of the officer in question.
The CJI outbreak came after senior counsel Harish Salve, representing Goswami, told The Bench that the secretary of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly wrote a letter to Goswami on October 13 threatening Republic’s editor-in-chief. TV for “violating” the confidentiality of the privilege proceedings by moving superior court.
The Court had granted protection from arrest to Goswami in this case, as Salve urged the court to protect him from any coercive action by the Assembly Privileges Committee.
Noting that “case after case” was being brought against Goswami, Salve had said: “The constitutional courts have to see the reality, not the smoke screen.”
The Assembly Secretary, who had already received a notification about Arnab’s petition, had written a letter to Goswami threatening him for going to court.
Qualifying the letter written by the Secretary of the Assembly as unprecedented, the Court said that it had a tendency to discredit the administration of justice and amounted to interference in the administration of justice.
“The intention of the author (Assembly Secretary) appears to intimidate the petitioner (Goswami) because he approached this court and threatened him with a penalty for doing so,” the higher court said.
In its order, the court had said that the Secretary of the Assembly must know that the right to go to the Supreme Court under Article 32 itself is a fundamental right.
“There is no doubt that if a citizen is dissuaded from exercising his right under article 32, it will amount to serious interference in the administration of justice,” he said.
On September 30, the high court issued a notice to the Maharashtra Assembly Clerk of Goswami’s petition challenging a notice of privilege violation issued to him for his alleged remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in the Sushant death case. Singh Rajput.
