Lawyers Protest SC Denial of Urgent Hearing on Chidambaram’s Plea

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had reportedly made two mentions before Justice Ramana for urgent hearing of the plea.

File image of Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A group of lawyers on Thursday urged the Supreme Court Bar Association to release a statement protesting the top court’s refusal to grant urgent hearing to former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s bail plea on Wednesday, Livelaw reported.

Around 140 lawyers, including Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh, Jaideep Gupta, Harin P Raval, signed a statement that reportedly said:

“The Founders of the Constitution could never have imagined that the Supreme Court could deny urgent and immediate listing upon mentioning of a matter relating to the most senior member of the bar with 40 years of experience, 35 years out of which he has been a Senior Advocate.”

The lawyers further expressed their disappointment, saying: “even a hearing was denied to him, when in cases of protecting personal liberty the Hon'ble Supreme Court has been very proactive".

“The denial of urgent listing in a matter of anticipatory bail of a senior member of the bar leads us to conclude that rule of law and democracy are in peril.”

Statement signed by lawyers

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had reportedly made two mentions before Justice Ramana – one in the morning and another at 2 pm on Wednesday – for urgent hearing of the petition, the Livelaw report said.

On Tuesday, Chidambaram was asked to mention in the Supreme Court his appeal for urgent hearing against the Delhi High Court order on Wednesday, which dismissed his anticipatory bail plea in the corruption and money laundering cases related to the INX Media scam.

Since Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was scheduled to be on the Constitution bench for hearing in the Ayodhya case, the petition was to be mentioned at 10:30 am before the next available most senior judge .

Sibal was asked by a Supreme Court official to place Chidambaram's petition before Registrar (judicial) who would take a call on putting it before the Chief Justice of India, PTI reported.

He was asked by a Supreme Court official to place Chidambaram's petition before Registrar (judicial) who will take call on putting it before the Chief Justice of India.

(With inputs from Livelaw and PTI)