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The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday had rejected the bail application of Surendra Gadling in connection with a 2016 arson case where around 80 vehicles were torched at Surjagarh mining site in the district.

A Division Bench of Justice VM Deshpande and Justice Amit B Broker while disposing of the plea, granted liberty to Gadling to avail the appropriate remedies subject to limitation observed that,

"The Court trying offences under second schedule of the NIA Act is Special Court, the person aggrieved by an order of refusing bail is required to file appeal under Section 21(4) of the NIA Act and the application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not maintainable before the High Court."

It must be noted that after the arrest in the Arson case, Gadling had approached the Sessions Judge in Gadchiroli for regular bail which was rejected in 2019. Therefore, challenging that order, Gadling has filed the present plea for bail before the High Court

The Bench further observed that,

"All Scheduled Offences i.e. all offences under the UAPA, whether investigated by the National Investigation Agency or by the investigating agencies of the State Government, are to be tried exclusively by Special Courts set up under that Act."

The Bench noted that all offences under UAPA are to be tried exclusively by the NIA Court, irrespective of whether NIA investigates it or not.

The Court made the following observations –

• The present bail application before them was an appeal challenging the rejection order of the Special Court under NIA Act.
• An appeal under Section 21 of NIA Act had to be instituted within 30 days of the order under challenge and was barred after a period of 90 days as per subsection (5).

Further, the Sessions Judge had rejected the bail in September 2019 and the present application was filed in March 2020 which was beyond a period of 90 days due to which the Court could not hear the appeal.

The Bench finally concluded that, since the present proceeding is challenging an order of the Special Court, it was required to be challenged under Section 21(4) and therefore, a regular bail application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not maintainable.

“The applicant can avail remedy of statutory appeal under Section 21(4) of the NIA Act if permissible in law and subject to limitation.”

[Case title - Surendra P. Gadling v State of Maharashtra]