Elgaar Parishad case: NIA seeks dismissal of review plea by three accused seeking default bail

A division bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice N J Jamadar was hearing the plea filed through advocates Sudeep Pasbola and R Sathyanarayan, which said that the bail request of the three was at par with another accused, Sudha Bharadwaj, who had secured default bail in December last year and so, the rejection order should be reviewed.

The NIA affidavit, filed through its Mumbai branch SP Vikram Khalate, referred to Section 362 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) that puts an embargo on courts to alter or review its judgment or final order “except to correct a clerical or arithmetical error”. The central agency claimed that the petitioners’ prayer was unfounded as the High Court had passed the judgment after due verification of record and the relief should not be granted, which is expressly barred by CrPC.

The NIA said the accused ought to have approached the appellate court or Supreme Court against the High Court judgment.

“By filing a present application in the final order seeking default bail in the criminal petition where this court was pleased to pass judgment is unsustainable in the eyes of law and liable to be dismissed at the threshold,” the affidavit read and sought dismissal of the plea.

Asking the state prison authority to file the reply to the plea if it wishes to, the bench posted further hearing to March 2.

Meanwhile, as per sources, Justice S S Shinde has recused from hearing cases pertaining to the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case. The concerned bench is likely to issue a circular to that effect and the lawyers representing accused persons will then approach Chief Justice Dipankar Datta on administrative side to constitute another bench to hear the matters.

Last month, Justice Prasanna B Varale had recused himself from hearing the plea by accused Varavara Rao seeking extension of medical bail granted to him by the High Court in February last year. Thereafter, Justice Varale recused from hearing other Elgaar Parishad matters, leading the matters to be transferred to alternate bench led by Justice Shinde.

Justice Shinde-led bench will now only hear the petition filed by Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira seeking a review of the December 1 order of the court that refused to grant them default bail.