Supreme Court declines Pawan Khera's plea to extend anticipatory bail
What's the story
The Supreme Court has rejected Congress leader Pawan Khera's plea to vacate the stay on his transit anticipatory bail. The bail was granted by the Telangana High Court in a forgery and criminal conspiracy case filed by Assam Police. The case was registered on the complaint by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, over his allegations that she held multiple passports of different countries.
Court proceedings
No extension of bail period
The decision was taken by a bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Atul S Chandurkar. Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Khera, had sought an extension of the transit bail till next Tuesday. He argued that Khera needed more time to approach the Assam Court on Monday. "Today is Friday, I'm filing on Monday. Am I a hardened criminal so as to deny even this relief?" Singhvi asked. However, the bench refused to extend the bail period.
SC
Why in Telangana? Why not in Assam? the bench asked
The Supreme Court asked why Khera had not approached courts in Assam directly. "Why in Telangana? Why not in Assam?" the bench asked. Singhvi replied that Khera's wife is a Telangana MLA candidate and that his wife also has a residence in Hyderabad. "I have my matrimonial home in Hyderabad. I visit there all the time," Singhvi said.
Bench
'You go and file petition in Assam'
The bench then asked where he had mentioned all these things in the transit bail plea. "The correction was made in the court. The document was handed over. And the judge records it. This is a technical trap for the unwary in a liberty matter," Singhvi replied. "How can you say it's a small error?" the court replied back. The court went on to state that Khera will have to seek further remedies from Assam's courts.
Bail proceedings
HC, SC orders shouldn't influence Khera's application
The bench also clarified that neither the Telangana High Court's order nor the Supreme Court's stay order should influence Khera's application for anticipatory bail. On April 10, the Telangana High Court had granted him transit anticipatory bail for a week, which was later challenged by Assam in the Supreme Court. The Assam government had challenged the high court's bail order on grounds of jurisdiction. They argued that Khera could have approached courts in Assam directly.