The FIR was based on the allegations of the deceased, Anvay Naik’s wife Akshata Naik, that Goswami and other clients of her husband and mother in law had driven them to suicide by failing to pay them certain sums of money for their work, and the suicide note by Anvay Naik which claimed the same.

The accused are residents of India and do not pose a flight risk during the investigation of the case. There is no apprehension of tampering of evidence or witnesses.

This should mean that the judgment will have application as a precedent in other cases going forward as well.

After acknowledging that there are 91,568 bail applications pending before the high courts in India and 1,96,861 bail applications pending before the district courts (according to data from the National Judicial Data Grid), they urged the judges in charge of these courts to utilise tools at their disposal to address this pendency. “Liberty is not a gift for the few.”

SC Explains Why Arnab Goswami Got Bail, Says Bombay High Court Abdicated Responsibility

The Supreme Court on Friday, 27 November pronounced its reasons for granting interim bail to Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami more than two weeks previously in connection with the abetment of suicide case against him.

The detailed judgment by Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee says that the Bombay High Court – which had declined Goswami’s request for interim bail – had “abdicated its constitutional duty and function as a protector of liberty” by not conducting a prima facie evaluation of the FIR against Goswami and the other accused in the case.

“If the High Court were to carry out a prima facie evaluation, it would have been impossible for it not to notice the disconnect between the FIR and the provisions of Section 306 of the IPC,” the judgment says.

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SC Explains Why Arnab Got Bail, Lays Down New Precedent on Liberty

Justices Chandrachud & Banerjee held that high courts must see if a prima facie case is made out against an accused.

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Topics: Arnab Goswami arrested