The Supreme Court will on Friday hear Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan’s plea seeking clubbing of multiple cases lodged against him for presenting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the vandalisation of his office in Kerala in June as his statement on a tailor’s murder in Udaipur last week
The anchor is facing cases in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The channel has apologised for the misrepresentation.
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The journalist’s plea was mentioned for the second consecutive day on Thursday by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who informed the Court that the matter was not on Thursday’s list despite a specific order passed by the vacation bench on Wednesday. Luthra requested the matter to be taken up on Friday subject to assignment of the case from the office of chief justice of India (CJI).
A bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari said: “The files are possibly with CJI as it has not been assigned yet.” When Luthra requested that the matter be listed before any bench as there are two vacation benches sitting in the Court, the bench said, “It may not be assigned to us. The papers are with the CJI. It is awaiting assignment by CJI.” The matter was listed for hearing on Friday before the same bench.