In a significant development, the Supreme Court has extended the stay on the Bombay High Court’s order granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case. This decision follows a request by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which had appealed against the high court’s order.
Gautam Navlakha, arrested in April 2020 in connection with the 2018 violence case in Maharashtra and accused of having links with the banned Naxal organization CPI(Maoist), had been granted bail by the Bombay HC on December 19. The NIA filed an appeal challenging this order, prompting the Supreme Court to intervene.
The SC bench, comprising justices MM Sundresh and SVN Bhatti, referred the NIA’s appeal to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) after learning about other pending bail matters related to the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case before different benches of the court. The high court had temporarily suspended its order for three weeks, allowing the NIA to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
The court clarified that the stay on the high court’s decision would continue until the CJI allocates the matter before an appropriate bench. The bench did not issue a notice on the appeal due to a dispute between Navlakha’s lawyers and the NIA regarding the matter being heard alongside other petitions related to bail in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Navlakha, demanded that the matter be heard with petitions where bail was granted to three other accused persons – Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Fereira, and Anand Teltumbde. On the other hand, the NIA urged the court to list Navlakha’s matter with an appeal challenging the bail granted to another accused, Mahesh Raut.
With multiple bail matters pending before different benches, the court directed the Registry to place the matter before the CJI for consideration of consolidating it with other similar cases. The bench expressed the view that all related matters should be heard together before one bench.
Gautam Navlakha has been under house arrest since November 10, 2022, based on an SC order owing to health-related concerns. The Bhima-Koregaon case revolves around alleged inflammatory speeches during an Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune in 2017, triggering violence near the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial the following day.
As legal proceedings unfold, Navlakha’s lawyers emphasize the extensive witness count and pending charges as reasons to consider bail, while the prosecution argues against it under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
