SC to hear plea on Jun 22 on filing of affidavits

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear on June 22 the appeals against Calcutta High Court's denial for filing of affidavits by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Law Minister Moloy Ghatak on their role on the day of arrest of four leaders on May 17 by the CBI in connection with the Narada sting tape case.

A vacation bench of justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian, meanwhile, requested the high court not to hear the case on Monday but a day after the apex court considers the appeals of the state government and Ghatak against the order.

List on Tuesday. Mr Solicitor General (Tushar Mehta) has put in appearance. The copy of the special leave petitions (SLPs) be served ion him... In the meantime, we hope that the High Court defers the hearing scheduled on Monday before it to Wednesday, the bench said in the order.

On June 9, a five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, hearing CBI's application for transfer of the Narada sting tape case from the special CBI court to the high court, had said it will decide later on considering the affidavits by the Banerjee and Ghatak on their respective roles on the day of the arrest of four leaders in connection with the case.

Senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Vikas Singh appeared for the law minister and the state government and said it was necessary to bring on record the affidavits of the high court as they deal with the roles of the persons concerned on May 17.

The law minister was attending the cabinet meeting and was not in the court premises at the time of hearing, Dwivedi said, adding that even the CBI officials were not there on the spot as the lawyer for the agency addressed the court virtually. It has been alleged that the state ruling party leaders played key role in stopping CBI from performing its legal duty after arresting four leaders on May 17 in the case.

You may not be partly correct. It was stated that he (law minister) was in court, the bench observed. The CBI is an agency which aims to find the truth. They were themselves in CBI office and addressed the court virtually. They do not know as to what happened in the court. The law minister is yet to address court on this, Dwivedi said.

Singh said that under the rules there is a right to file affidavits and, moreover, CBI filed as many as three affidavits and did not take the permission of the court.

The high court, which on June 9 decided to consider later the affidavits of Banerjee and Ghatak, was urged by the Solicitor General that the affidavits cannot be accepted on the ground of delay as they were filed after the completion of his arguments. The CBI, which has filed an application seeking transfer of the Narada sting tape case from the special CBI court to the high court, has made the chief minister and the law minister parties in its plea there.