Team Herald
PANJIM: The Chief Justice of Bombay High Court has allowed the State government and senior journalist Tarun Tejpal’s plea to continue to hold the proceedings in the matter pertaining to the 2013 sexual assault case in virtual mode.
The High Court of Bombay at Goa will thus resume the hearing on State government’s appeal challenging acquittal of the former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, on September 20.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Goa government in the appeal proceedings before had earlier expressed difficulty in physically appearing before the High Court in Goa after the court resumed physical hearings from mid-August. Similarly, Tejpal’s counsels also pleaded for hybrid haring after which the Division Bench asked both parties to approach the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court with their request in writing.
The government’s application before the Chief Justice, filed through Additional Public Prosecutor Pravin Faldesai, stated “The Applicant, the State of Goa, is represented…right from inception, when the matter was being heard via video conferencing, by the Ld Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, who is positioned in Delhi. However, in Goa now the matters are exclusively heard physically in court. The ongoing pandemic and the restrictions on inter-State travel due to COVID-19 pandemic make it difficult for the Ld Solicitor General of India to physically appear in the present matter.”
In a letter to the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court of Bombay at Goa D S Deshmukh, the Registrar (Judicial-I) of the Bombay High Court, Appellate Side, on September 9 wrote that the Chief Justice was “pleased to direct the hearing of the criminal appeal and the criminal miscellaneous application filed in the case to be heard in the virtual mode”.
