Cinestar Sanjay Dutt’s hopes to be home for Diwali were dashed on Friday when the Supreme Court fixed November 20 to hear his regular bail plea. Dutt, sentenced to six years imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, will have to spend his Diwali in Pune’s Yerrawada jail.Issuing notice to the CBI on his bail application, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishan said Dutt’s plea could only be entertained after the Diwali vacation.Senior advocate V R Manohar, who mentioned Dutt’s bail application, said the actor was only convicted under the Arms Act and during the 14 years of trial he spent one-fourth part of his six years sentence in the jail.Dutt had remained in jail for 18 months during the trial of the case before he was granted bail by the apex court.The actor was convicted on November 28, 2006 and quantum of punishment was pronounced on July 31, 2007, following which he was taken into custody.However, he was granted interim bail on August 20, on the condition that on getting the copy of the judgement relating to his conviction he would surrender before the TADA court. Dutt, who was supplied with the copy of the voluminous judgement on October 22, complied with the bail condition and was taken to Yerrawada jail in Pune. Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the Bench that CBI had prepared three CDs of the judgement and a copy of it for placing it before the court.During the last hearing, the court had asked whether the voluminous judgement could be placed in abridged form. In his petition, the actor assured that he was willing to abide by any condition which the apex court might impose for granting him bail.
