The Maharashtra government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order setting aside the transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case and releasing him from house arrest.
The Delhi High Court had released Mr. Navlakha from house arrest on October 1. It quashed a magistrate court order granting transit remand to the Maharashtra police to transfer him to Pune.
Seeking a stay of the October 1 order, the State contended that the High Court erred in releasing Mr. Navlakha on the basis of a habeas corpus petition filed by him. The government argued that a habeas corpus petition would not lie in a case where the arrest and remand were based on an order of a court of law.
ADVERTISEMENT
Besides, the State pointed out that there was no prayer made in the High Court to set aside the transit remand.
The Maharashtra government contended that there was no need to end Mr. Navlakha’s house arrest when the Supreme Court had already extended it for four weeks in its September 28 judgment.
The majority opinion in the Supreme Court verdict had dismissed the writ petition filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and four others that the arrests of poet Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Mr. Navlakha were an attempt to silence dissenting voices in the country.
ADVERTISEMENT
Strong dissent
In a strong dissent, the third member of the Bench, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had lashed out at the Maharashtra police for prejudicing the investigation and besmirching the reputations of the accused persons.
The State countered the High Court’s conclusion that the Magistrate issued the transit remand without going through the case diary.
“In the case in hand, the police arrested five persons from different places in the country. It was, therefore, not expected and not possible to produce the case diary before the courts concerned,” the petition said.