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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today set aside the order passed by the Bombay High Court at Nagpur Bench discharging former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and others in an alleged Maoist links case.

While allowing the appeal moved by the state government of Maharashtra against the decision of the high court, the bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice CT Ravikumar remitted back the matter to the high court to decide afresh. 

The bench noted that the high court had passed the impugned orders solely on the ground of invalid sanction and absence of sanction in case of one accused. 

The bench directed the high court to now decide the matter (appeals of the convicts) on its own merits including the question of valid sanction and/or no sanction.

Importantly, the division bench observed that it will be open for the state to contend that once the accused are convicted on conclusion of the trial, the validity of the sanction and/or no sanction cannot be gone into. The bench said that if such contention is raised, the same may be considered by the high court in accordance with the law and on its own merits. 

The division bench further clarified that all the contentions raised by the counsel for all the concerned parties will be kept open to be considered by the high court. 

Accordingly, the bench asked the high court to decide the appeals of the convicts afresh and preferably within a period of four months. 

Furthermore, in order to avoid any further apprehensions as expressed by the state counsel and others, the bench extended a request to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court to see that the appeals are placed before a different bench. 

ASG SV Raju appeared for the State of Maharashtra, Sr Adv R Basant appeared for Saibaba and Sr Adv Nitya Ramakrishnan appeared for the two others accused.

The top court had already suspended the order passed by the high court in October last year. A bench of Justice Shan and Justice Bela M Trivedi had then observed that the accusations against the accused were "grave and very serious" & the high court had not gone into the merits of the case. 

The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court comprising Justice Rohit Deo and Justice Anil Pansare had acquitted GN Saibaba and five other accused in the matter. All of them were convicted for their alleged Maoist links and for waging war against the country.

The high court while acquitting Saibaba and others had also ordered for their immediate release. However, the Apex Court, while suspending the order of the high court, had stayed the release of the accused persons. 

The high court had acquitted Saibaba and five others on the ground that the sessions judge had framed charges against them and examined the first witness in the absence of sanction. 

The high court in the impugned order noted that "the preponderance school of thought is that invalidity or absence of sanction strikes at the very root of the jurisdiction of the court if the Court is precluded from taking cognizance without the previous sanction envisaged under the statute. The jurisprudential logic is that in the absence of a valid sanction, the Court is not empowered to take cognizance of the offence, and the proceedings would be void and 'no proceedings in the eyes of law'".

Notably, it was the prosecution's case that the six accused had links with the CPI Maoist and its frontal organisation Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). It was also alleged that the accused were abetting and assisting the hardcore underground cadre of the CPI (Maoist) by providing information and material and facilitating the travel and relocation of the members from one location to the other.

Case Title: The State of Maharashtra vs. Mahesh Kariman Tirki & Ors