The Registry of the Supreme Court of India has informed that there are 931 bail and anticipatory bail petitions pending as on December 18, in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by activist Saket Gokhale. This figure of 931 also includes interim bail petitions.
The top court has further informed that 141 petitions seeking a suspension of sentence is also pending in the Court as on December 18, 2020. The data cited by the Supreme Court registry is as per the ICMIS software.
Gokhale had filed an RTI application seeking to know how many bail matters relating to criminal cases were pending in court after journalist Arnab Goswami got an immediate hearing in a bail plea filed by him.
Goswami had moved the top court in an interim bail plea soon after he was arrested and lodged in Taloja jail for allegedly abetting the 2018 suicide of an interior architect.
A Justice DY Chandrachud led bench had given Goswami a day-long hearing and had granted him interim bail stating that personal liberty of an individual cannot be taken away and that a prima facie case of abetment to suicide was not made out from the FIR.
Senior Advocate and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Dushyant Dave had earlier written a strongly worded letter to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court questioning the manner in which Republic TV Editor, Arnab Goswami's bail plea was listed the very next day after it was filed.
Terming the subject of his letter as the "extraordinary urgent listing of the Special Leave Petition filed on behalf of Arnab Goswami," Dave had questioned whether there was a special direction from the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde himself to list petitions by the journalist urgently.
