SC issues show cause notice to Maha assembly secy for writing to Arnab, protects him from arrest

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest to Arnab Goswami in the Maharashtra assembly breach of privilege motion case and issued a show-cause notice to Secretary of the legislative assembly for his letter to the journalist purportedly cautioning him against disclosing house notice to the apex court.

The top court directed the Secretary of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly to explain in two weeks as to why the contempt proceedings be not initiated against him.

“This is a serious matter and amounts to contempt. The statements are unprecedented and have a tendency to bring the administration of justice into disrepute and in any case, may amount to direct interference in the administration of Justice. The intention of the author of the letter seems to be to intimidate the petitioner because he approached this court and to threaten him with a penalty for doing so,” said a bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

The top court was hearing the plea by journalist Arnab Goswami against the show cause notice by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for initiation of breach of privilege motion against him for reportage related to the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.