NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court declined to grant urgent hearing to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's interim bail application and fixed August 20 to take it up.
"We want to follow uniform approach," Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said in an obvious reference to bail applications and appeals filed by Dutt's co-accused in the Mumbai serial blast case earlier. "We are not going to pass any order now.
We will consider all connected matters on August 20," the Bench, also comprising Justice R V Raveendran, said when senior advocate Fali S Nariman mentioned Dutt's interim bail application for urgent hearing.
The court refused to accept Nariman's plea that the interim bail application be taken up and issued notice to the CBI. "Please give us five minutes ,Nariman pleaded humbly before the Bench which remained unmoved.
The senior advocate said it is the mandate of Article 21 of the Constitution that the actor should have been supplied with the copy of the judgment. He (Dutt) has been deprived of the copy of judgment which amounts to violation of his liberty; Nariman said adding it would not be possible to get the copy of judgment before August 24.
However, the Bench said it would hear the matter without waiting for the judgement. Dutt has been convicted under the Arms Act and was sentenced to six years imprisonment by the TADA court on July 31 Aziz Ahmed Mohammed Sheikh, a convict in the case, through his lawyer, had complained that though he was the first to approach the apex court, petitions of other co-accused got precedence.
A Bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal had said the court would not discriminate vis-à-vis dealing with the accused persons in the Mumbai blasts. Meanwhile, a Bench headed by the Chief Justice also issued notice the CBI on an appeal and bail petition filed by Ibrahim Musa Chauhan, sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in the case.
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