NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection to social activist Gautam Navlakha from arrest till further order and fixed the next date of hearing on October 15.

Navlakha was booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including waging a war and sedition.

Navlakha approached the apex court challenging the Bombay high court’s September 13 verdict which refused to quash the FIR lodged against him in the 2017 case for having alleged Maoist links after noting that there was prima facie substance in the case.

With Navlakha’s protection from arrest ending on Friday, the SC had agreed to his counsel senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s request that his plea for scrapping the FIR be listed on Friday.

Navlakha’s petition was first listed on October 1 before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi who recused himself from hearing the case. His plea was then listed before a bench of Justices N V Ramana, R Subhash Reddy and B R Gavai and, interestingly, all three judges recused themselves and asked the CJI to list the case before another bench.

The case was then assigned to a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Vineet Saran and S Ravindra Bhat. When the case was taken up for hearing, Justice Bhat recused himself, making him the fifth judge to recuse in three days.

None of the five judges gave any reason for their recusal but senior advocate A M Singhvi said Justice Bhat may have appeared as a lawyer for the organisation with which Navlakha was associated.

“It is quite understandable that Justice Bhat recused himself either because he had appeared as counsel for or was a member of People’s Union for Democratic Rights,” Singhvi said.

(With inputs from agencies)



In Video: Bhima-Koregaon case: SC grants protection to Gautam Navlakha from arrest till Oct 15