New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear the Maharashtra government’s plea challenging the discharge of G.N. Saibaba and others in a Maoist links case on Saturday, October 15. A two-judge bench of Justice Mihir Shah and Justice Bela Trivedi will hear the matter.
The apex court’s website posted the update by Friday, October 14 evening.
Earlier, the top court had granted permission to solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Maharashtra, to move an application before the Supreme Court Registry for an early listing of the plea challenging the discharge of Saibaba and others.
The court, however, had turned down a request from the Maharashtra government to stay the Bombay high order, which had struck down the conviction of Saibaba and others on Friday.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Friday morning discharged Saibaba and five others, including a journalist and a JNU student, in the case. It allowed their appeals against conviction and life sentence, imposed under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Hours after the Bombay high court order on Friday, the state government moved the apex court for a stay order. However, the court declined the request.
However, the bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said the state government can move an application before the Supreme Court Registry.
“The SLP has been mentioned before this court because Hon’ble CJI has risen for the day. Mr. Mehta, SG states that he would be moving an application before Registry for seeking administrative directions of the Hon’ble CJI for earlier listing tomorrow,” the court had said, according to LiveLaw.
Mehta had told a bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli that because the acquittal pertains to a “very very serious offence against the nation”, the top court should stay the order and list the matter on Monday.
“He has got an order of acquittal in his favour. Even if we take it up on Monday, and assuming we issue notice we cannot stay the order,” Justice Chandrachud had said.
The solicitor general added that the acquittal was not on merit but on the ground that the requisite sanction was not sought by the prosecution, according to LiveLaw. “We have not lost on merit, it is on lack of sanction….No prejudice would be caused because he was already in jail,” he had said.
Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, defence lawyers had rushed with the high court’s order from Nagpur to Aheri in Gadchiroli district, over 260 kilometers away – hoping to secure a release warrant from the lower court.
The high court, in the judgment, had directed each accused to execute a surety of Rs 50,000. For an amount this big, a valuation report of the revenue officer is a must, Saibaba’s lawyer Nihalsing Rathod told The Wire. So, Rathod along with other lawyers requested the court to give them a week’s time. The trial court judge Uday Shukla, however, rejected their plea.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court did not deliberate on the merits of the defence’s case but held that the trial was null and void as the valid sanction as required under Section 45 of UAPA was not obtained. It noted that procedural safeguards cannot be sacrificed at the altar of a “perceived peril to national security”.
The court added that because the trial was struck down due to the absence of a proper sanction order, the prosecution can obtain proper sanction to try the accused again.
Note: This copy, first published at 5:10 pm on October 14, was updated and republished at 11:15 pm on the same day with details about the upcoming hearing on October 15 at the Supreme Court.