NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and human resources department head Amit Chakraborty have moved the Supreme Court, challenging a Delhi High Court order that refused to revoke their arrest and remand over a UAPA case.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has asked Mr Purkayastha's counsel Kapil Sibal to circulate papers and said it will decide on an urgent hearing.
"This is the NewsClick matter. The journalists are in police custody. Here one of the accused is a 75-year-old man," Mr Sibal said.
The Delhi High Court recently ruled that the stringent anti-terror law UAPA does not require police to provide written grounds of arrest at the time of detention, rejecting Mr Purkayastha and Mr Chakraborty's claim that they were entitled to written grounds of arrest at the time of their detention.
The court urged the police to start providing written grounds of arrest to the accused, after removing any confidential information.
"The petition, being devoid of any merit, along with pending applications, is dismissed," the Delhi High Court said in its order. "After examining the entire issue from the right perspective, it appears as of now that the grounds of arrest were indeed conveyed to the petitioner, as soon as may be, after the arrest, and as such, there does not appear to be any procedural infirmity or violation of the provisions of the Section 43B of the UAPA or the Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India and as such, the arrest is in accordance with the law."
On October 3, the Delhi Police's Special Cell arrested Mr Purkayastha and Mr Chakravarty under UAPA charges for allegedly receiving money to spread pro-China propaganda in India.
The FIR alleges that NewsClick received a large sum of money from China, which was meant to undermine India's sovereignty and sow discord among its citizens. The FIR also accused Mr Purkayastha of working with a group called the People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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