By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday stayed the likely arrests of three Mid-Day journalists and its former publishers when the Delhi High Court spells out their sentence Friday following their conviction for contempt of court.
In an interim order on an appeal by the three journalists and the newspaper’s publisher against their conviction by the high court, a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhan said, “In case the high court sentences them with jail term, it would grant them bail till their appeal is heard by this (apex) court.”
The bench, however, refused to stay the high court proceedings against the petitioners.
It granted relief to them after former union law minister Shanti Bhushan, appearing for them, convinced the court that a person, convicted by a court, too can challenge his conviction before the imposition of sentence.
Mid-Day resident editor Vitusha Oberai, its city editor M.K. Tayal and cartoonist Irfan, along with the Mumbai-based eveninger’s former publisher S.K. Khan were convicted by the Delhi High Court on charges of contempt of court.
They also were convicted for a series of investigative reports by Tayal, in which he imputed ulterior motives to former chief justice Y.K. Sabharwal taking up for hearing the case for shuttering down commercial activities in residential premises of the capital with a missionary zeal.
The apex court bench slated the hearing of the petition by Tayal and his colleagues on Sep 28.