The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday sought urgent listing of its plea before the Supreme Court, challenging the Bombay high court’s order of granting default bail to advocate-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested and had been in jail for over two years in the Elgar Parishad case.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NIA, mentioned the plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana to list the case for hearing on Tuesday. The Chief Justice of India said that he would see into listing the matter.
The solicitor general said, “Order will come into effect on 8th [December], so I have to succeed or lose tomorrow.”
On December 1, the high court had granted Bharadwaj default bail, saying, that the extension of time for investigation and detention under provisions of section 43D(2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure was not done by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The high court, however, directed a Mumbai special NIA court to take up the case on December 8 and decide on the conditions of her bail and date of release.
Bharadwaj was arrested in 2018. Bhardwaj, one of the several civil liberties activists in the Elgar Parishad case, has been booked under stringent provisions of the UAPA for an alleged conspiracy to topple the government.
The high court said guarantee of personal liberty under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution cannot be thwarted on technical grounds that her plea for default bail was premature.
The high court had, however, denied bail to eight rights activists — Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in the case. They are lodged at Taloja Central Jail.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the city’s outskirts.
