The Hindu : SC notice to Centre and T.N. on Gopal's plea

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 25, 2003

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SC notice to Centre and T.N. on Gopal's plea

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI April 24. The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government returnable in two weeks on a writ petition filed by the Editor of Tamil bi-weekly, Nakkeeran, R.R. Gopal challenging Sec. 4 of POTA under which he was arrested.

A Bench comprising Justice S. Rajendra Babu and Justice G.P. Mathur ordered the notice after the petition was `mentioned' by senior counsel, K.T.S. Tulsi.

Mr. Gopal was initially arrested on April 11 in a murder case and Sec. 4 of POTA was invoked on him on April 16 for possessing unauthorised arms in a notified area. Counsel said the Editor of the one of the largest circulated magazines "has been pilloried by the Chief Minister'' for writing articles against her and her Government and his arrest is of the gravest misuse of POTA.

He said such misuse of POTA and arrests of Editors should be prevented by the court by laying down safeguards and guidelines.

In his petition, Mr. Gopal said he was compelled to file several writ petitions to prevent the State Government from taking any arbitrary action against him and his journalistic activities. He had also obtained anticipatory bail in other cases, including that of Rajkumar abduction.

He said having failed in their attempts to arrest him, POTA had been foisted on him.

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