SC sets aside Bombay HC order acquitting ex-DU prof. G N Saibaba in Maoist links case
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Bombay High Court order acquitting former Delhi University Professor and activist G N Saibaba in a Maoist links case and remanded it back to the high court for fresh consideration on merits within four months.
A bench headed by Justice MR Shah was hearing a plea filed by the Maharashtra government challenging the decision of the high court to allow appeals against the conviction and life sentence imposed on Saibaba and five others under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
A bench that also included CT Ravikumar directed the chief justice of the Bombay High Court to place Saibaba's appeal and that of other accused not before the same bench which had discharged them and the case be heard by another bench.
It said that question of law, including sanction under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), is to remain open for adjudication by the high court.
The top court had on October 15 suspended the Bombay High Court order acquitting Saibaba and others in the case.
Advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh appeared for the Maharashtra government and senior advocate R Basant represented Saibaba in the case in the apex court.
More than eight years after his arrest in 2014, the Bombay High Court on October 14 last year acquitted Saibaba and ordered his release from jail, noting that the sanction order issued to prosecute the accused in the case under the stringent provisions of the UAPA was "bad in law and invalid".
The Nagpur bench of the high court allowed the appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of the trial court convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment for offences under provisions of UAPA and the Indian Penal Code.
During the final hearing yesterday, senior advocate R Basant, appearing on behalf of the embattled professor, proposed that the matter can be remanded to the Bombay High Court to be heard afresh on all concerned issues.
The senior counsel also suggested that the special leave petition before the top court be kept pending. Justice Shah, however, observed that the acquittal order would have to be set aside, before remitting the appeals to a subordinate court.
Saibaba, who is bound by a wheelchair due to post-polio paralysis, had earlier filed an application seeking suspension of sentence on medical grounds. He said that he is suffering from multiple ailments, including kidney and spinal cord problems. In 2019, the High Court rejected his application to suspend the sentence.
The order of conviction and sentence was passed by the Sessions Court at Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, in March 2017, for offences under Sections 13, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of the UAPA and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code for alleged association with Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), which was alleged to be an affiliate of outlawed Maoist organisation. The accused were arrested in 2014.
Apart from Saibaba, the Bombay high court had acquitted Mahesh Kariman Tirki, Pandu Pora Narote (both farmers), Hem Keshavdatta Mishra (student) and Prashant Sanglikar (journalist), who were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Vijay Tirki (labourer), who was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Narote died during the pendency of the appeal.
With PTI inputs