NewsClick UAPA case: SC to consider listing plea of founder Purkayastha

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday said it will consider listing for hearing the plea of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and its HR head Amit Chakravarty against the Delhi High Court’s rejection of their petitions challenging their arrest and police remand in a case lodged under anti-terror law UAPA. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for Purkayastha and Chakravarty, that the matter needed urgent hearing, and asked him to circulate the case papers.

“This is the NewsClick matter. The journalists are in police custody. Here one of the accused is a 75-year old man,” Sibal said. The CJI said he will take a call on the listing. On October 13, the Delhi High Court had dismissed the duo’s petitions against the arrest and subsequent police remand in the case. The high court rejected their contention that they ought to have been supplied with the grounds of arrest when they were apprehended by police and said the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) does not mandate furnishing the grounds in writing and only speaks of the accused being “informed” about the reasons for arrest.

The high court had said it would be “advisable” that the police henceforth provide the grounds of arrest in writing to an accused after redacting “sensitive material”. Dismissing the petitions, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela had said there was no “procedural infirmity” or violation of legal or constitutional provisions in relation to the arrest and the remand order is sustainable in law.