"First time special bench assigned to take away liberty:" Supreme Court on Calcutta High Court late night order staying bail of 4 TMC leaders

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took an unfavourable view of the Calcutta High Court order of May 17 by which interim bail given to 4 TMC leaders in the Narada case by the special CBI court was stayed late at night by the High Court.

A Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai said that special benches are usually constituted to protect liberty unlike in this case wherein the opposite happened.

"Special bench is assigned to protect liberty. This is for the first time that a special bench was assigned to take away the liberty," remarked Justice Gavai.

The Court was hearing an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation challenging another Calcutta High Court order of May 21 in the same matter by which four senior TMC leaders were granted the benefit of house arrest instead of being lodged in jail under judicial custody as an interim arrangement.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the CBI, submitted that the the conduct of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other top leaders of TMC after the CBI effected the arrest of accused, had vitiated the atmosphere and the order of special CBI court granting bail could not be sustained on that ground.

While Banerjee had gone to CBI office with her supporters and sat on a dharna, the State law minister had went with his followers to the special CBI court complex.

The Bench, however, disagreed with the Solicitor General stating that those incidents involving actions of TMC ministers have to be seen separately and cannot influence grant of bail to the accused.

"We have to see if bail has to be granted or not. For other issues, other remedies are there. Take action against such officials," the Court remarked.

"We also have been tried to be pressurized. I was hearing a anticipatory bail plea in Aurangabad in 2013 and mahila morcha people came inside court. police asked me to not to pass orders but I passed orders in open courtroom," Justice Gavai recounted.

The four leaders Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI on May 17.

A special CBI court had granted them interim bail that evening but it was stayed by the High Court the very same day, the order being pronounced after 10 pm.

The stay was granted after the CBI sought a transfer of the case from the Court dealing with the same, while also citing a threat to the probe agency on the ground that TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee and TMC ministers were sat on dharna outside the agency's office at Nizam palace causing obstruction to justice and creating an atmosphere of fear.

The CBI had also alleged that the State Law minister along with his supporters had thronged the special court complex which heard the bail plea of the four leaders.

The matter was then heard on May 19 at length by the Calcutta High Court. The hearing remained inconclusive and was expected to continue on May 21. However, the judges on the Division Bench, Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee, disagreed on the aspect of grant of interim bail to the four accused.

The High Court, therefore, decided to refer the matter to a larger Bench.

In the meanwhile, as an interim measure, the Division Bench directed that the four TMC leaders be placed under house arrest, in terms of the order outlined by the Supreme Court in the case of Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon matter.

This prompted the present appeal before the Supreme Court.

The hearing is still in progress.