Mumbai : The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted default bail to lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj in connection with the 2018 caste violence case of Bhima Koregao – Elgar Parishad. All the same the Court rejected bail for 8 others charged in the case : Sudhir Dawale, Dr. P Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Advocate Surendra Gadling, Prof. Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira..
In its ruling today, the court directed Sudha Bharadwaj to be produced before Special NIA Court on December 8 to decide on full conditions of the bail.
The petitioners contended that Pune Session Court was not authorised to take cognizance of the case against them back in 2018-19. Only a special court under NIA act is allowed to hear UAPA(Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act, they argued. Therefore the 2018 orders extending time for Pune police to file chargesheet and the supplementary chargesheet they filed in 2019 should be be quashed, the petitioners further sought.
The Advocate General argued that NIA purview gets active only after a case comes under its investigation, something that happened only in 2020. The 3-judge Bench today however observed that only Special Court was authorised to extend the 180 days granted to Pune police by virtue of the case being a UAPA one. The default bail plea submitted by others, the AG argued, was not maintainable for exceeding time-limit to challenge the extension of time granted to file chargesheet.
