Judgment

KIRISHNA IYER, J. :- Mrs. Maneka Gandhi figures as an accused in a prosecution launched against her and other by Miss. Rani Jethmalani for an offence of defamation in the Court of the Metropolitan Magistrate, Bombay. The former is the editor of a monthly called "Surya" and is the wife of Shri Sanjay Gandhi and daughter-in-law of Smt. Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister. The latter is a young advocate and is the daughter of a leading advocate and currently an important Member of Parliament. The present petition has been made for a transfer of the criminal case from Bombay to Delhi, and a string of grounds has been set out to validate the prayer. We decline the transfer and proceed to give our reasons without making the least reflection on the merits of the case.

2. Assurance of a fair trial is the first imperative of the dispensation of justice and the central criterion for the court to consider when a motion for transfer is made is not the hypersensitivity or relative convenience of a party or easy availability of legal services or like mini-grievances. Something more substantial, more compelling, more imperilling, from the point of view of public justice and its attendant