“My lords may leave it at that. There was a misunderstanding,” he added.
The Supreme Court, however, remained unconvinced.
“No misunderstanding. Why was the order passed?“, the Court asked.
“This was a speaking to minutes matter,” the Solicitor General started to explain.
“On a Saturday?” the Court questioned further.
“Please treat it as withdrawn,” the Solicitor General requested the Court.
“How can we withdraw a High Court order?” the Court remarked, while going on to note that the second order appeared to have been passed suo motu.
“No judge can pass an order as a counterblast to our order. This appears to be that,” the bench further observed.
The Solicitor General, in turn, urged the Court not to say anything adverse against the High Court.
“It was a speaking to minutes order. Kindly do not say anything. We as government can ask the judge to recall the order … Kindly ignore the High Court order. It will really have a bad effect, demoralising. Otherwise a very good judge,” Mehta submitted.
The bench responded that it is not on any particular judge.
The rape survivor’s counsel, Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh, meanwhile, added that the High Court hearing may be in the public domain since the Gujarat High Court live-streams its proceedings on YouTube.
The Court, however, ultimately refrained from recording any adverse observations against the High Court in its order allowing the abortion plea.
Source: Barandbench
