The Supreme Court has raised concerns about the extended house arrest of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, asserting that it may set a "wrong precedent"
The court directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to provide information about Navlakha's current medical condition and the stage of the trial, emphasizing the need for an affidavit to be filed within four weeks. Gautam Navlakha has been under house arrest at a public library in Mumbai since November 2022.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and J B Pardiwala expressed its reservations, noting that while it did not want to delve into the merits of the case, such an extended house arrest for one individual might establish an undesirable precedent.
Navlakha's lawyer reminded the court that it had previously directed the NIA to respond to the activist's plea for a change of accommodation back in April, but the federal anti-terror agency had not yet submitted its reply. Senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, representing Navlakha, informed the bench that the Bombay High Court was scheduled to hear the activist's bail plea and requested additional time.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the NIA, contended that the house arrest order was unusual and the first of its kind. Raju stated that Navlakha had obtained the house arrest order based on health grounds and had claimed that a lady would stay with him, although this was not consistently the case. Raju argued that the house arrest order was unwarranted and highlighted that Navlakha owed money to the State. He urged the bench to direct Navlakha to pay at least Rs 20 lakh towards the expenses incurred in providing police personnel for his security. Ramakrishnan countered this argument by citing the NIA's own medical examination, which confirmed Navlakha's ailment.
It is worth noting that when the Supreme Court initially ordered Navlakha's house arrest on November 10, 2022, it required him to deposit Rs 2.4 lakh as expenses to be borne by the state for deploying police personnel to facilitate his house arrest. In a subsequent hearing, the court directed Navlakha to deposit an additional Rs 8 lakh for the expenses related to providing police personnel for his security.
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