The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that status reports on the probe into threats against retired High Court Justice Gautam S Patel and his family will remain confidential and are not to be shared or reported by media (Bombay Bar Association & Ors v. Union of India & Ors.).
A division bench of acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad examined the six-page report submitted by the Mumbai police as well as an office memorandum of the Union Ministry of External Affairs.
The report outlined steps taken to extend protection to Justice Patel in Mumbai and his family members in the United Kingdom.
Both documents were shown to counsel for three bar bodies, the petitioners who had moved the Court seeking a thorough probe into the threats.
The counsel returned the reports to the Court after inspecting them.
“In order to ensure that the steps being taken by the Ministry of External Affairs, and the Indian High Commission in London and the Mumbai police are not a matter of discussion or publicity, we are placing both these reports in a sealed envelope to be preserved in the records of the present proceedings,” the Court ordered.
ACJ Ghuge made it clear that the reports were meant only to satisfy the court that something proper is being done and should not be discussed outside the proceedings.
“The reports are only to convince us that something proper is being done. We don't want everybody to know how it is being done and how the issue is being now tackled. Otherwise it is publicised,” ACJ reasoned.
The Bench drew an analogy to the live telecast of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks at Trident and other locations, noting that such broadcasts had revealed operational details in real time.
Public dissemination of investigative details could similarly compromise ongoing probes and aid wrongdoers, the Court said.
The reports were filed in response to a
public interest litigation (PIL) by the Bombay Bar Association, Advocates Association of Western India and the Bombay Incorporated Law Society seeking protection for Justice Patel and his family and a court monitored probe into the threats.
The threats allegedly linked to his April 2024 verdict in the Dawoodi Bohra succession dispute.
Justice Patel and his family members had received threatening letters and his daughter in London was accosted by a masked individual and suffered a fractured nose, prompting UK police to provide security to the family.
The plea before the High Court said that the case raises larger issues of judicial independence and warned that such threats could have a chilling effect on judges who are to hear the pending appeal in the Dawoodi Bohra case.
The government pleader had
earlier informed the Court that Maharashtra Police has already provided two personal security officers to Justice Patel, and assured that any further protective measures required would be implemented.
According to the State’s report, two non cognisable complaints have been registered in Mumbai and a separate incident in the United Kingdom has also been taken note of.
The Bench directed the authorities to continue with the investigation and fixed a period of four weeks for filing an updated status report.
The plea will be heard next on August 7.
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