Friends, you will remember that Maharashtra Govt had filed a case against Republic News Channel’s Arnab Goswami in connection with Palghar lynching case reporting on his news channel, where he openly criticised the Mumbai police and Maharashtra govt for lopsided handling of the case. That time Arnab had approached the Bombay High Court (HC) and HC had stayed the proceedings against Arnab. Against the order of HC, the Maharashtra govt filed an appeal in Supreme Court (SC), which was heard yesterday. The case was heard by SC bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde along with Justices DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao. Republic News Channel/Arnab Goswami was represented by Harish Salve and Maharashtra govt by Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Some interesting ruling/happening of the proceedings.
1 The Supreme Court on Monday, 26 October, asked the Maharashtra government to submit a list of FIRs filed against Republic editor Arnab Goswami, and posted the state’s appeal against a Bombay High Court order staying FIRs against Goswami for hearing after two weeks.
2 AM Singhvi argued that the HC did not have authority to stay investigation as a whole. He suggested that there could be certain conditions imposed to ensure there were no concerns of fairness, such as no arrest/coercive action, and 48 hours’ notice for summons for questioning – but beyond this, there should be no impression that someone is above the law.
3 CJI Bobde agreed that nobody was above the law, but also noted that there were some people who were being targeted with ‘higher intensity’, which might mean they need to be granted a greater standard of protection.
4 Harish Salve appearing for Republic/Arnab Goswami argued that his client had been targeted since April 2020 by the Mumbai Police, including with a recent FIR against the entire editorial staff of the channel. He contended that the FIRs in question in the case before the Supreme Court were “not genuine”.
5 CJI Bobde, while acknowledging the importance of freedom of press, noted that this did not mean journalists could not be questioned for commission of crimes in their work, and made some strong oral observations against Republic. As a court, our most important concern is peace and harmony in the society. Nobody is immune from being questioned. We can ensure the questioning takes place with dignity and privacy, but we also want you to act with more responsibility.
6 Salve said he understood the judge’s comments on the need for more responsibility in reporting, but reiterated that the FIRs in question should not be taken at face value. CJI Bobde then retorted by saying that Goswami did not need to adhere to some model standards of reporting, but frankly speaking, I cannot stand it. This has never been the level of our public discourse.
7 The CJI also noted that every day, there was one or the other case pertaining to Republic coming up in the apex court. The court then directed Salve to place on affidavit what Goswami proposed to do in this regard.
8 The bench, however, cautioned that no one should be harassed during the course of investigation and sought details from Singhvi as to what the State would not do. This is purely an intellectual matter related to verbal matter. It is not related to the recovery of some arms etc. You are entitled to investigate but you cannot harass. It can not be done the way it has been done, the bench stated.
9 Salve, while opposing Maharashtra govt’s stand the investigation should not be stopped, highlighted that Arnab Goswami has been interrogated for nearly 17 hours by the police and also drew attention to the recent FIR against the editorial team of news channel. ‘Some kind of joke is going on’ adding that CEO, CFO and entire editorial staff of the channel have been interrogated. He further added that a person can file a defamation case, but this is not the case for registration of FIR.
The court did not pass any order on the Maharashtra government’s plea. It directed Goswami and Maharashtra to file their respective affidavits giving details of all the cases and FIRs registered against Goswami, other connected persons and Republic news channel. The next hearing is after two weeks.
From the above it is quite clear that even SC bench has also realised that whatever has happened in this case is not correct, and indirectly they have hinted that some people from Maharashtra govt are not taking news channel criticism in right spirit and through police they are harassing the people from this news channel.
One hypothetical question, what Maharashtra govt would have done if the Republic news channel was not based in Mumbai. There are many other news channels who speak against central or state govts all the time, but not heard about cases/FIRs against those channels.
The so called pseudo secular gang who always say that Modi govt can not take criticism in right spirit and they take personal vendetta, but no one has uttered a single word against the action of Maharashtra govt against Arnab Goswami and his team.
Awaiting for your comments/feed backs/views.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
27th October 2020
R. N. Mungale.
FIR against Arnab was not right.