Panaji: Advocate for Tehelka founder-editor Tarun Tejpal On Tuesday, Goa told the Bombay High Court that the state’s appeal challenging his acquittal in the alleged rape case is “defective” on maintenance grounds, and demanded that the case be heard in-camera.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, replied to the plea of senior advocate Amit Desai. GovernmentHe said that he would file a reply to the application.
The court then adjourned the matter till August 31. When both the parties sought a virtual hearing on the next date, the court asked the parties to approach the Chief Justice, as the court would start the physical hearing from next week.
Desai said that he has filed a reply on the question of whether the appeal is maintainable. “We have raised (the issue) that the handling of the appeal is faulty, it is not in conformity with the requirement of Section 378 of the CrPC, and there are too many judgments on the subject,” he said.
The state government had approached the high court challenging the acquittal of Tejpal by a trial court in the alleged rape case. The matter came up for hearing before a division bench of Justice Sunil P Deshmukh and Justice MS Sonak.
Desai said that he has filed an application that the proceedings should be closed even on the grounds of leave of appeal.
“From the very first day, every application of all kinds, including the entire trial before the trial court and the High Court, was kept closed, and I think it is a principle of law in such cases,” he said. “Therefore, we have given an application, though the state did not feel the need. We feel that it is appropriate to do so in a case like this, especially considering the sensitivity of the nature of the allegation.”
Responding to one of the points raised by Tejpal’s lawyer (that he received some documents related to the case on Monday), Mehta said, “We will not like a magician bring the pigeons out of the cap and show him something new. Every lawyer defending an accused knows what documents the prosecution is technically going to rely on. We needed to serve, and we have served”.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, replied to the plea of senior advocate Amit Desai. GovernmentHe said that he would file a reply to the application.
The court then adjourned the matter till August 31. When both the parties sought a virtual hearing on the next date, the court asked the parties to approach the Chief Justice, as the court would start the physical hearing from next week.
Desai said that he has filed a reply on the question of whether the appeal is maintainable. “We have raised (the issue) that the handling of the appeal is faulty, it is not in conformity with the requirement of Section 378 of the CrPC, and there are too many judgments on the subject,” he said.
The state government had approached the high court challenging the acquittal of Tejpal by a trial court in the alleged rape case. The matter came up for hearing before a division bench of Justice Sunil P Deshmukh and Justice MS Sonak.
Desai said that he has filed an application that the proceedings should be closed even on the grounds of leave of appeal.
“From the very first day, every application of all kinds, including the entire trial before the trial court and the High Court, was kept closed, and I think it is a principle of law in such cases,” he said. “Therefore, we have given an application, though the state did not feel the need. We feel that it is appropriate to do so in a case like this, especially considering the sensitivity of the nature of the allegation.”
Responding to one of the points raised by Tejpal’s lawyer (that he received some documents related to the case on Monday), Mehta said, “We will not like a magician bring the pigeons out of the cap and show him something new. Every lawyer defending an accused knows what documents the prosecution is technically going to rely on. We needed to serve, and we have served”.
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