JOIN USOutside court number five of the Supreme Court on Friday, the buzz was about “item number 50”.
Around 10 am, lawyers and media persons were eagerly waiting for the hearing of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar’s bail plea to begin. Even after it started, more people kept coming in to hear the judgment in the already packed court room.The hype surrounding the case could not escape those in other areas of the court premises. They could not get access to the court room where the hearing was held.
Four men in the lawn were herad discussing “Kanhaiya’s fate”. While one of them spoke in favour of Kanhaiya, the others said that it was unlikely that he would get bail on Friday.
After the hearing was completed and it was known that Kanhaiya’s bail plea has been sent to the high court, a lawyer standing outside the court room with his colleagues and waiting for his matter to appear before the bench said, “This was bound to happen. What does he think of the Supreme Court. It is not a joke to just move the apex court without taking the plea to lower courts first.”
The atmosphere was in stark contrast with that in Patiala House Courts a few days back, and the hearing went without any commotion even with the usual security apparatus in the court premises. Kanhaiya was not produced before the bench.Joint Commissioner of Police M K Meena said that the Delhi Police did not provide any additional security as the campus has its own security team and the environment inside the Supreme Court is different from that in lower courts. “It is unlikely that people can come there and attack anybody,” he said.
It is on this premise that Kanhaiya’s lawyers had moved the apex court for bail plea. They had said that they prefer the Supreme Court to hear his bail plea, arguing that the situation in the high court also would not be much different from than in Patiala House.