The Supreme Court on Friday extended the stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on the operation of its December 19, 2023, order granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.
A bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice SVN Bhatti extended the stay of the December 19, 2023, bail order and said that it was not inclined to say anything on the merits of the case.
It further directed the Supreme Court’s Registry to place before Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud the National Investigation Agency (NIA) plea seeking the tagging of its petition with cases of other accused. The NIA has approached the top court against the High Court order granting bail to Navlakha.
On December 19, 2023, the High Court had granted bail to Gautam Navlakha but stayed the operation of its order for three weeks after the NIA sought time to file an appeal in the Supreme court.
The top court had in August last year allowed Navlakha’s plea to place him under house arrest in Mumbai considering his health condition and old age. Later it had extended his house arrest.
Navlakha, arrested in August 2018, had moved the top court requesting that he be placed under house arrest instead of judicial custody in Taloja jail, Maharashtra.
Navlakha, one of the several civil liberties activists in the Bhima Koregaon case, has been booked under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for an alleged conspiracy to topple the government. He was arrested by the probe agency in April 2020.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted bail to 82-year-old activist P Varavara Rao in the case.