In a very interesting turn of events at the Supreme Court today, the lawyers representing West Bengal government requested the Hon’ble court to adjudicate on their application to vacate the stay order put in place by the SC, preventing the arrest of GJM Chief Bimal Gurung.
It might be recalled that the Supreme Court had on November 20, 2017 issue an order restraining the West Bengal police from taking any “coercive action” against Bimal Gurung. The West Bengal government, had immediately filed a petition requesting the SC to quash its order. The hearing into the petition filed by West Bengal government, and the counter petition requesting the invalidation of all cases filed by WB against Bimal Gurung by his lawyers have continued ever since.
Requesting the SC to adjudicate only on their petition and vacate the stay order put in place. In their support, they read out and filed a transcript an alleged phone conversation recorded between GJM Chief Bimal Gurung and those who have been accused in the alleged Arms haul case.
However, the Supreme Court held the view that they were hearing the full petition and not just the petition filed by West Bengal .
Commenting on the development, one of the lawyers representing Bimal Gurung said, “today the state of West Bengal refused to argue the matter and they asked the judges to simply vacate the stay asking the bench to adjudicate only on their application. We vehemently opposed. The judges told the state that they are hearing the full petition and not just their application.
The state asked for time to file counter affidavit to the main petition.”
Bimal’s lawyer added, “they [lawyers for West Bengal] tried to prejudice the bench by handing over a transcript of alleged telephone conversation. They have to file their counter by Monday and we have been given 3 days to file our rejoinder. We will get a chance to answer every allegation of their’s.”
The matter is listed to be heard for 12th Feb, 2018.
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