The Supreme Court would now hear in the third week of January the plea of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) questioning the arrest of scribe Siddique Kappan on his way to Hathras where a young Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde on Monday granted opportunity to the journalists' body to file its response to the additional affidavit of the Uttar Pradesh government in the case and fixed the plea for hearing next year.
The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, did not agree to the submission of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the KUWJ, that the case be listed in the first week of January instead of third on reopening of courts after the winter break.
"First two weeks (in January) are miscellaneous (weeks when fresh matters will be heard)," the bench said in a hearing conducted through video conferencing.
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had told the bench that "shocking findings" have emerged in the investigation so far in the case in which Mr Kappan was arrested on his way to Hathras.
Mr Kappan claimed that he is working as a journalist in a Kerala-based daily but that newspaper was closed two years back and investigation conducted so far has found some shocking findings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had told the bench.
KUWJ, which has been questioning Mr Kappan's arrest, had refused to approach the Allahabad High Court as suggested by the top court for seeking bail and other reliefs.
We would like to argue the matter in the top court itself and implead Mr Kappan's wife and others in the plea, Mr Sibal had said.
"The high court has granted one month's time on the habeas corpus plea of other accused in the same case and I want to argue here," Mr Sibal had said, adding, "Hear me finally".
The Uttar Pradesh government recently filed an affidavit in the top court claiming that Kappan was going to Hathras under the "garb of journalism" with a "very determined design" to create caste divide and disturb law and order situation.
The state has alleged in its affidavit that Mr Kappan is the office secretary of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and was using a "journalist cover" by showing identity card of a Kerela-based newspaper which was closed in 2018.
Mr Kappan was arrested on October 5 while he was on his way to Hathras, home to the 19-year-old Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men.
The police had said it has arrested four people having alleged links with the PFI in Mathura and identified the arrested persons as Siddique from Malappuram, Atiq-ur Rehman from Muzaffarnagar, Masood Ahmed from Bahraich and Alam from Rampur.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)
