The Editors Guild of India (EGI) president and members of the fact-finding team were granted temporary protection from arrest by the Supreme Court on Monday in connection with the two FIRs filed against them by the Manipur Police until September 15. The application of the order that was made on September 6 in response to the argument of the EGI was extended until Friday, the next hearing date, by a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The Manipur government’s Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, told the bench that EGI members might still be protected for a while and urged it to refer the case to the Manipur High Court, as it has in other cases. Senior attorneys Kapil Sibal and Shyam Divan, who were representing the EGI, disagreed with SG’s argument and argued that the apex top court should hear the case since the FIRs were filed in response to a fact-finding report.
The Chief Justice asked Mehta whether the State would agree to the transfer of the case to the Delhi High Court as a one-off measure. “We will not quash the FIRs here… but we will examine whether such a plea could be heard by the Delhi High Court,” CJI said.
SG initially objected to the transfer of the case to the Delhi High Court, saying the EGI was trying to make it into a “national, political issue” and asked why the petitioners were insisting on Delhi, and not States neighbouring Manipur.