New Delhi, October 4
It is for the second time within a fortnight that the reliability of The Tribune reports today became a subject matter of citation in the Kanchi Shankaracharya’s case before the Supreme Court after it had dominated a day’s proceedings in the Bihar Assembly dissolution matter earlier.
Senior advocate Falai S Nariman, appearing for the pontiff, relied heavily on The Tribune reports along with reports of some other papers published from Chennai to prove his point that how the atmosphere against the seer was being “vitiated” in the state which could affect his trial adversely.
Nariman said the newspaper reports showed how law was given a ride by special investigating team (SIT) chief Prem Kumar, who had taken the chargesheet with a lot of “fanfare in full public galore” to Lord Verdaraja temple before filing it in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate on “Id” day and how the magistrate had “waited” for the filing of it on national holiday.
The court asked several pointed questions from the Tamil Nadu Government counsel as to how a magistrate was sitting on holiday and on whose instruction, to enable the police to file the chargesheet when courts were closed. “It may not be relevant how they went to the temple to place the chargesheet before the deity but it was a serious matter how a magistrate was waiting for filing of it on national holiday and who instructed him,” the court asked.
The Tamil Nadu Government would reply tomorrow to the argument of Nariman, who said “there is no example of judicial history of a magistrate sitting on a national holiday to receive a chargesheet and also of it being taken to a religious place before filing.” He also drew the court’s attention to Prem Kumar’s statement to media that “it is now a trial between Lord Vardaraja and Shankaracharya”.
