The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted conditional bail to Madurai-based advocate M. Mohamed Abbas, in a case booked against him by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), on the charge of having been a part of the Popular Front of India (PFI) criminal conspiracy case.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sundar and R. Sakthivel allowed a criminal appeal preferred by the advocate against the refusal of a special court for NIA cases to grant him bail, and listed out the conditions that he needed to comply with for the bail..
After the judges pronounced their orders, NIA Special Public Prosecutor N. Manoharan made an oral request under Article 134A of the Constitution and urged the court to issue a certificate of appeal to the Supreme Court on the ground that Section 43D of the Unlawful Activites (Prevention) Act, 1967 required interpretation.
However, the Bench negatived the request and held that it did not find any reason to issue such a certificate since Section 43D of the UAPA had already been dealt with by the Supreme Court in a catena of decisions, which they had referred to in their own decision, granting bail to the lawyer.
The judges, further, made it clear that the lower courts concerned could proceed with the bail proceedings on the basis of a web copy of their order without insisting upon the production of a certified copy.
