The Supreme Court of India on Friday agreed to hear a plea filed by several opposition parties alleging the misuse of federal probe agencies on April 5.
As per the media reports, 14 opposition parties including Congress, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Janata Dal-United, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction), National Conference, Nationalist Congress Party, the Left, and the DMK have filed the plea in the top court.
Appearing on behalf of the opposition parties, advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that 14 political parties, which represent 42 percent of the political spectrum, now contend that Indian democracy is in peril.
He, however, said that they are not trying to affect the existing investigations via the plea.
“Today Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are being used against leaders of opposition parties and 95 percent of cases are of opposition leaders,” he said in the court.
Taking note of Singhvi's submission, the bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala, said: “We will list it on April 5.”
The opposition parties are also insisting that pre- and post-arrest guidelines must be followed by the federal probe agencies.
“Ninety five percent cases are against opposition leaders. We are asking for pre-arrest guidelines and post-arrest guidelines,” Singhvi said.
The political parties have also sought “triple test” guidelines for arrest and remand.
As per the triple test, a person may only be arrested if they pose a flight risk, or if there's a reasonable apprehension of tampering with the evidence, or chances of intimidation/influencing of witnesses.
In the case of bail, the opposition parties have sought for the principle of “bail as a rule, jail as exception” to be followed by all courts.