The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest to Arnab Goswami in the Maharashtra assembly violation of privilege motion case and issued a show-cause notice to the Secretary of the legislative assembly for his letter to the journalist allegedly cautioning him against disclosing house notice to the Supreme Court.

The Apex Court directed the Secretary of Maharashtra legislative assembly to explain in fortnight duration as to why the contempt proceedings be not initiated against him. A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian stated: "This is a serious matter and amounts to contempt. The statements are unprecedented and have a tendency to bring the administration of justice into disrepute and in any case, may amount to direct interference in the administration of Justice. The intention of the author of the letter seems to be to intimidate the petitioner because he approached this court and to threaten him with a penalty for doing ss.”

The Supreme Court was hearing the appeal by journalist Arnab Goswami against the show cause notice by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for initiation of breach of privilege motion against him for reportage related to the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

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