New Delhi: A Delhi court has granted bail to a sacked Supreme Court staff, arrested for allegedly posting wrong information on the apex court's website related to a case involving Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Manish Khurana granted the relief to accused, Manav Sharma, on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety of the like amount, saying that he has been in judicial custody for more than a month and his custodial interrogation was no more required.
Sharma and another SC staffer, Tapan Kumar Chakraborty, were arrested last month. The court has already granted bail to Chakraborty.
While granting bail to Sharma, CMM Khurana said, "Considering the fact that the accused has been in judicial custody for last more than one month and his custodial interrogation is no more required by the police and the fact that the co-accused Tapan Kumar Chakroborty has already been granted bail, I am of the opinion that Sharma is also entitled to bail in this case at this stage."
The prosecution opposed Sharma's bail on the ground that the investigation of the case was ongoing and the accused may tamper the evidence.
Sharma's counsel said that the accused did not have any guilty intention as on realising the mistake, he immediately uploaded the revised order mentioning the words "personal appearance of the alleged contemnor is not dispensed with". He further submitted that it was not Sharma's duty to issue a notice to the alleged contemnor as he was not posted in the apex court's Registry.
The top court had sacked the two court officials for tampering with its January 7 order on the issue of personal appearance of Ambani in connection with the contempt matter filed against him by Swedish telecom group Ericsson.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had passed directions to terminate the services of the two court officials who were responsible for noting the judge's orders and getting them uploaded on the apex court's website.
Justice R F Nariman, who was dealing with Ambani's case, had forwarded a complaint to the CJI that the order in the matter for the presence of the contemnor was not properly found in it. The order dictated had stated that the personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is not dispensed with, but it found the word 'not' was missing. The discrepancy in this regard was brought to the notice of the bench on January 10 by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was appearing for Ericsson.
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