Out on parole, Sahara chief Subrata Roy on Friday came on the verge of being sent back to jail by the Supreme Court until things took a pleasant turn with senior advocate Kapil Sibal coming to his rescue and securing an order from the Chief Justice of India to list his bail plea next week.
Earlier in the day, the apex court was irked by the temperamental lawyer and senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan who appeared for Roy as Sibal was ill. As Roy had offered to make a deposit of Rs 300 crore as a commitment to keep him out on parole for arranging the outstanding bail amount of Rs 10000 core, the bench was told by the counsel for Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) that they had begun arranging the outstanding amount by putting Sahara properties to auction.
The bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices AR Dave and AK Sikri told Dhavan that his client will be sent back to jail if he did not pay the amount as ordered by the Court on past several occasions. Dhavan shot back saying, “Your lordships have passed the order in anger. It’s extremely unfair.” The bench ordered cancellation of parole and gave Roy a week’s time to surrender.
All hell broke loose in the Sahara camp as with Roy, two of his Directors Ashok Roy Chowdhary ad RS Dubey, would have to surrender. Sahara group decided to drop Dhavan and sought intervention of Sibal who, despite his ill health came to the CJI’s court moments before the Court was to rise for lunch at 1 pm. Given a minute to argue, Sibal profusely apologized for the tiff in Court and convinced the bench that the statement by Dhavan was not on instruction by his client.
While Dhavan was not seen this time around, the bench told Sibal how much “pained” it was to be treated in this manner by the senior counsel. “One may be very eloquent and scholarly but there is a threshold to our tolerance,” said the bench. Sibal said that it was a case where the lawyer exceeded the brief and will not be repeated, to which the bench said, “There are senior advocates who are disrespectful to Court...we are seriously considering withdrawing their designation.”
later, CJI discussed with other members on the bench and fixed September 28 for hearing Roy’s bail plea. This is a major concession since his period to surrender was to expire by September 30. However, Dhavan, too, chose to circulate a note later in the day terming the CJI’s outburst as “inappropriate” and “unbecoming” of persons in high places.