[Narada Case] Supreme Court requests Calcutta High Court to defer hearing by two days in view of appeal in SC by State Govt, Law Minister

The Supreme Court on Friday requested the Calcutta High Court to defer by two days, the hearing in the transfer plea filed by Central Bureau of Investigation in the Narada case seeking transfer of proceedings from the special CBI court to High Court..The request was made in view of the appeal filed by West Bengal government and State Law Minister Moloy Ghatak before the apex court challenging a June 9 order of the Calcutta High Court which had refused to take their reply affidavits on record in the transfer plea filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CB) in the Narada case.The Supreme Court slated the same for hearing on Tuesday next week while directing that copies of the plea be served on the office of the Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta. "In the meantime, we hope that the (Calcutta) High Court will defer the hearing fixed on Monday to Wednesday," the Court observed. The plea before the top court stated that the rights of the State government and the Law Minister shouldn’t be closed "especially when CBI has been allowed to file additional affidavits at different stages."The Calcutta High Court in its June 9 order had noted that, "they (CM, law minister and state) have waited for the arguments in the case to be substantially completed before seeking to place on record their pleadings in response.""It is nothing else but filling the lacunae or supporting the accused. That is why, even the learned Counsels appearing for the accused are also supporting the prayer made by the State for taking these belated affidavits on record," said the High Court..Appearing for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before Calcutta High Court, Senior Counsel Rakesh Dwivedi had submitted that if the affidavit is ignored, justice will be hampered.“Apologies for the inconvenience, but it is a question of justice. If the affidavit is ignored, the interests of justice will not be served. These are serious charges by the CBI, therefore they should prove the facts. Why should CBI shy away from bringing out the facts?”However, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had strongly objected to the acceptance of the affidavits, claiming they were filed after he completed his arguments.The Calcutta High Court had accepted the SG's argument.."The respondents concerned have taken a calculated risk in not filing their affidavits at the right time, hence, now they cannot be allowed to do so at their own whims and fancies, whenever they wish to do the same. Urgency of the matter could be appreciated on behalf of the accused, who were in custody but it cannot apparently be on behalf of the State, hence, if the State or other persons impleaded by the CBI wanted to file their response, time could have been sought at that time and not when the arguments are at an advanced stage," the High Court order of June 9 said..Dwivedi, who also appeared before the Supreme Court for the petitioners on Friday, submitted that the affidavits should be brought on record. "It is an essential procedure. If they want to find the truth as to what happened," Dwivedi said. Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, who was also appearing for the petitioners, weighed in stating that no permission from the High Court is needed to place the affidavit on record but permission was sought as a matter of courtesy. .The Court eventually deferred the hearing for Tuesday.