It was late in night when the Bombay High Court declared that its judgment on the bail plea of Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of Republic TV, would be declared at 3 p.m on Monday the 9th of November.
The judgment would be declared by SS Shinde and MS Karnik bench of Bombay High Court.
On Saturday, no decision could be arrived after six hours of hearing. The High Court had reserved its order on the ad-interim bail plea by Goswami.
The court had then said it couldn’t pass the order as it was past 6 pm in the evening. The court had claimed it couldn’t pass an order given the compilations submitted to them. They had declared it would be sometime next week when they would take a call. Well, it’s now known it’s Monday of the next week, 3 p.m.
Despite fervent appeal by advocate Harish Salve, representing Goswami, that there were past precedents of granting bail, the Bombay High Court had reserved its judgment last evening, nevertheless clarifying that it would not bar the petitioner from approaching the sessions court for bail—and should such an application be filed, the decision must be pronounced within four days.
Goswami’s side had argued that police had no power to suo moto re-open the case without getting a judicial order, given the case had been declared closed in 2019 on the basis of closure report submitted by the police itself. Hence, it was claimed that arresting Goswami was illegal and the accused ought to be released.
The Bombay High Court had begun on November 5, a day after Raigad court had rejected the plea for police remand—instead sending him to judicial custody for 14 days.
Goswami had been arrested on Wednesday.
