12 Feb 2024 1:35 PM GMT
The Supreme Court on Monday (February 12) extended until March the stay on the bail granted to journalist and activist Gautam Navlakha in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, following a petition filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The septuagenarian has been in custody since August 2018 for offences under the anti-terror statute. In April 2022, the Bombay High Court dismissed a petition filed by Navlakha seeking to be shifted out of Taloja Prison and placed under house arrest on grounds of ill health. In November of the same year, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy, however, allowed his appeal challenging the high court's order and directed him to be shifted to house arrest for a period of one month.
He was originally housed in a library building controlled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), but has been compelled to seek alternative accommodation after trust wanted the place back. A bench headed by Justice Sundresh is also currently hearing Navlakha's application seeking to shift his house arrest location in Mumbai. During the latest hearing of this application, the bench revealed that it had 'reservations' about the November 2022 order allowing Navlakha to be released from detention and placed under house arrest on grounds of his deteriorating health. Such an order, the court orally observed, might set the 'wrong precedent'.
Case Details
The National Investigation Agency v. Gautam P Navlakha & Anr. | Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 167 of 2024