NEW DELHI: After a six-hour-long special hearing on Saturday, the Bombay high court has reserved its order on Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami’s plea seeking interim release from custody in the 2018 abetment to suicide case. The court is expected to release orders in the coming week.

The bench headed by justice SS Shinde and MS Karnik refused to pass an immediate order of interim relief but clarified that the pendency of the case in the high court will not bar the petitioners from seeking regular bail under section 439 before the concerned court. The decision will have to be given by the concerned court, in case of filing of such a petition by Goswami and other petitioners, within four days. 

“We can't pass order today. It is already six. Meanwhile we will clarify that pendency of the petition will not bar the petitioner from approaching the sessions court for bail and if such an application is filed, it should be decided within four days,” the bench observed.

When senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing on behalf of Goswami, pressed for interim bail, the court said that it could not pass an order immediately, and that it needed to consider the compilations and submissions made by the parties involved in the case.

It was the third consecutive day of hearing of the habeas corpus plea made by Goswami stating that his arrest in a “decisively closed” case was “illegal” and was done with the intent of vendetta by the Maharashtra government and Mumbai police for his critical reportage. 

Goswami remains in 14-day judicial custody after he was arrested from his Mumbai residence on the morning of Wednesday, 4 November.