The Supreme Court said Tuesday that some of the disclosures by the CBI in its status report on the investigation into the alleged rape and murder of a junior doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata are “really disturbing” and that the court itself is disturbed by it. “I won’t give details of the day here because it will dislocate the investigation. We don’t want someone to take advantage of it as a technical issue later on. But what the CBI has revealed in its status report is really disturbing. What you are flagging is of the utmost concern. So I can only share with you that we are ourselves disturbed by what we have (seen in the report)… and this is what the CBI itself has told us. They are themselves very concerned about the fact that this is what has happened,” Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, presiding over a three-judge bench, told a counsel who expressed reservations on the manner in which the local police had proceeded with search and seizure after the crime. The counsel told the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, that it is perturbing that the jeans and undergarments of the victim were not sent to the doctor conducting the post mortem. He urged the court to examine the case diary to ascertain when the samples were sent to the Magistrate. “Because the Magistrate has to then send it to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. What was the date on which these samples were sent to the Magistrate for forwarding? What the state will say is that August 10 and 11, being Saturday and Sunday, CFSL was closed,” he submitted. The bench, which perused the CBI status report, said “At this stage, it will not be in the interest of a fair and complete investigation to disclose the leads which are being pursued by CBI or the line of investigation as this may only lead to the dislocation of the investigation or destruction of evidence.” It turned down a request by the West Bengal government to stop live streaming of court proceedings in the matter. “We will not stop this,” the CJI told Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared for the state government and made the request, Sibal told the bench: “I have great concern at what’s happening. Your Lordships took suo motu cognizance of the matter to find out what is happening on the ground. Now what happens is if you livestream matters like this… which have emotive implications, huge emotive implications… We are not for the accused, we don’t stand for the accused, we are only called upon to tell you what the state has done.” “We have 50 years of reputation which is being destroyed overnight,” he said, adding that the court had in the past “held… that matters of this nature should not be live streamed.” “Why should we be vilified in this fashion to say I am laughing? Where was I laughing? I was not laughing at anything. I was not laughing at what had happened. It is the most heinous crime that was committed,” Sibal said. He was apparently referring to reports which said he laughed during the hearing of the matter on August 22. The reports also said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, took exception to this and made his displeasure evident. Sibal said that his colleagues in office were getting threats that acid will be thrown at their face and they will be raped. The CJI said the court will take care of the concerns. In the previous hearing, the Court, while flagging the absence of a key document, challan, that is sent with the body for post-mortem, had asked the West Bengal government to produce it at the next hearing. The court remarked that “if this document is missing, then something is amiss” as it would have details of clothes and articles sent with the body. On Tuesday, Sibal told the court that the form in question has not been used since 1997. Expressing surprise, the CJI said, “You cannot say there is a statutory form which we do not use.” Sibal said the state uses a requisition form which is as per Government of India Standard Operating Procedure. In other developments, the bench on being told that Wikipedia had not removed the name of the victim from its website, asked the portal to comply forthwith with its earlier order asking all websites to do so. The court also took exception to a notification issued by the West Bengal government on August 11 which said “working hours of women including women doctors will not preferably exceed 12 hours at a time” and “wherever possible night duty may be avoided for women to the extent possible”. “Women don’t want concessions. They want equal opportunities… Why do you prevent women doctors from working at night?” the CJI asked Sibal who said it is a temporary measure as “we were worried because there is no security in place at the moment”. The CJI said, “The answer to it is you must ensure security is in place. I think the State of West Bengal must immediately correct this notification. We cannot say that women will not work more than a 12-hour shift… It’s your duty to provide security. And we can’t tell any woman today in our country who is in the workforce that you can’t work at night. Pilots work at night, doctors work at night, armed forces work at night.” Sibal assured the court that the two objectionable clauses will be deleted by a notification.
