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Hearing the bunch of applications in the Narada Scam today, a 5-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court has adjourned the matter for oral arguments till September, 13th, 2021. 

The adjournment of 10 days was sought by the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Y. J. Dastoor on behalf of the Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta as he was engaged in other matters before Supreme Court.

However, it was argued by the counsel of the petitioners that the matter should be heard as the ASG, the second-highest law officer of the country, was present to take note of the matter. 

Though the court stressed that the hearing cannot break again after this adjournment in the light of Supreme Court directions that oral arguments cannot go on forever, it went on to adjourn the matter. 

The matter was listed before the constitutional bench comprising Chief Justice (Acting) Rajesh Bindal, Justice I.P. Mukherjee, Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Soumen Sen, and Justice Arijit Banerjee. 

During the last hearing, the Advocate General was directed to file response to the affidavit-in-reply filed by the CBI. 

Litigation Chain

It is a case in which Calcutta High Court had taken cognizance of the issues raised by CBI by sending an email to Chief Justice (Acting) on May 17, 2021 regarding obstruction in discharge of duties by the officers of CBI concerning a high profile case in which senior political leaders of the party in power in the State of West Bengal are the accused. 

The CBI alleged that the Chief Minister of the State was present in the CBI office along with a mob and the Law Minister. Interim bail was granted to the accused by the CBI Special Court.

Later on, Calcutta High Court had stayed the interim bail granted to the accused by the Special Judge, CBI Court vide order dated May 17, 2021.

Following that, the CBI filed pleadings in detail on May 19, 2021, where specific allegations were made against the Chief Minister, the Law Minister, and the State.

However, by order dated May 21, 2021, the interim order passed by the High Court staying the order of the Special Judge, CBI Court granting bail to the accused, was modified to the extent that they were directed to be kept under house arrest.

Subsequently, on May 27, 2021, the Counsel for the accused requested that the arguments in the application for recalling the order dated May 17 and May 19, 2021 be heard first before hearing arguments in the main petition.

By order dated May 28, 2021, the High Court considered it appropriate to grant interim bail to the accused subject to certain conditions. The arguments in the main petition were directed to be heard on May 31, 2021.

The arguments of Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, appearing for CBI, were concluded on June 03, 2021.

At that stage arguments in the case were nearing conclusion as primarily the CBI and the accused were to be heard.

The State, the Chief Minister and the Law Minister were merely to respond to the allegations made against them. However, due to non-filing of affidavits by the State, the Chief Minister and the Law Minister, the matter arguments were listed to be heard again today. 

What is the Narada Scam Case?

The Narada sting operation case was a big expośe conducted by "Narada news" in West Bengal to earth the corrupt practices of ministers. The sting was conducted over a period of two years. All of them were state ministers when the Narada sting operation showed them taking money.

The tapes were released ahead of the 2016 state Assembly polls. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017.

In May 2021, the CBI arrested four TMC leaders, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chattopadhyay in the Narada bribery case.

The move came days after Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar gave his consent to the CBI for filing a chargesheet against the four accused and sanctioned prosecution against them.

The then TMC MPs Mukul Roy, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Bannerjee, Suvendu Adhikari, Aparupa Poddar and Sultan Ahmad (now deceased), and state ministers Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and Iqbal Ahmed were seen accepting alleged bribes for extending unofficial favours for "Impex Consultancy Solutions", a fictitious company which was floated by the investigative journalists themselves.

TMC leader Shanku Deb Panda was also seen asking for shares in Samuel’s fictitious company in exchange of promised favours.

 

Case Title: Bunch of applications including CBI ACB Kolkata v. Shri Firhad Hakim@ Bobby Hakim And Ors.