The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest to two journalists of Financial Times, who were summoned by the Gujarat Police over an article on the Adani Group.
The Bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra issued notice to the Gujarat Police and directed that no coercive action be taken against journalists Benjamin Parkin and Chloe Cornish till the next date of hearing.
The Apex Court questioned the journalists as to why they moved the Supreme Court for relief, instead of first approaching the High Court.
It orally observed that if everyone came here, this would become difficult.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Agarwal, representing the journalists, submitted that neither Parkin nor Cornish were the authors of the article and that they did not reside in Gujarat as well.
The Senior Counsel contended that the decision to approach the Apex Court was made to avoid filing separate petitions in two different High Courts, that of Delhi and Gujarat.
As per Agarwal, the journalists were summoned from Delhi to Gujarat for a preliminary inquiry within a short span of seven days.
He said the article in question was similar to another article, which had alleged stock manipulation by the Adani group, and was published by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
The two authors who wrote the OCCRP article were granted interim relief by the Supreme Court last week, he pointed out.
While granting them interim relief, the top court of the country directed Parkin and Cornish to cooperate with the preliminary inquiry.
Advocates Ashima Obhan and Yogita Rathore (of Obhan and Associates), as well as Advocate-on-Record (AoR) Sonakshi Malhan also appeared for the journalists.
(Case title: Benjamin Nicholas Brooke Parkin and Anr vs State of Gujarat and Anr)