By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Dec 7, 2021: The Supreme Court on December 7 refused to interfere with a Bombay High Court order granting bail to Sudha Bharadwaj, a lawyer arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.
The default bail order of Bharadwaj, 60, comes into effect from December 8. She has to appear before the Special Court on the same day for a hearing on the conditions of her bail.
“This is a step in the right direction. The Bombay High Court has done well in granting bail to Sudha Bharadwaj. The Supreme Court has rightly upheld this decision,” says Jesuit activist Father Cedric Prakash reacting to the news.
Father Irudhaya Jothi, another Jesuit grassroots worker, hailed the apex court stand as the “triumph of the truth at the end” and “a breath of fresh air.”
Bharadwaj is among 16 people arrested by the National Investigation Agency in connection with 2018 violence at Bhima-Koregaon area near Pune, western India. One of the arrested was Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, who died as undertrial prisoner on July 5 in a Mumbai hospital.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi declined the arguments made by the National Investigation Agency that the High Court on December 1 erred in concluding that the Pune Sessions Court, which took cognizance of its charge-sheet and extended the period of her detention under Section 43D(2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), had no jurisdiction in the case.
The Sessions Court was not notified as a Special Court under the NIA Act, the High Court had noted.
“We find no reason to interfere,” Justice Lalit said in the order.
During the hearing, Justice Lalit said the moot question was whether the court that extended the detention was competent or not.
“Within 90 days, you have to complete the investigation, unless you can show reasons not to have completed,” Justice Lalit said.
The High Court had, in its order, upheld Bhardwaj’s indefeasible right to personal liberty.
It had said the 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. That would be a “too technical and formalistic view of the matter”.
The High Court had, however, denied bail to Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in the case. They are lodged in Taloja Central Jail.
Bharadwaj was taken into custody by the Pune police in August 2018. The charge-sheet was filed in February 2019.
Father Prakash says a full bench of the Supreme Court should review what he said was the draconian UAPA “in the wider interest of democracy and freedom guaranteed in the Constitution.”
The Ahmedabad-based Jesuit also wants the NIA immediately abolished as it has been “terrorizing human rights defenders and other innocent people.”
He bemoan that many like the Bhima-Koregaon 15 are languishing in jail for several years now because the NIA.
Father Jothi, who now works in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura, expressed the wish that Father Swamy had lived to see “this verdict” and enjoy bail and freedom eventually.