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The Bombay High Court has reserved its order on the default bail plea by 8 accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists link case. Recently, the Maharashtra government and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had opposed applications for `default bail’ filed by the 8 accused.

The accused persons, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira moved the court challenging the power of the Pune Sessions Court to take cognisance of the charge sheet in 2019. The accused persons sought bail on this technical ground or `by default'.

A division bench comprising Justice S S Shinde and Justice N J Jamadar was informed by Sr. Adv. Sudeep Pasbola [Dhawale's lawyer], that the accused were booked for `scheduled offences' under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, and hence only a special court for UAPA cases could have handled the case and not an ordinary sessions court.

On the contrary, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, the state government's counsel, argued that in September 2018 the Pune court had granted extension of 90 days to Pune police (who probed the case initially) to file a charge sheet. As the charge sheet was filed within that period, the accused were not entitled to default bail under S.167 CrPC.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who appeared for the NIA made the same argument and said that, "A particular court taking cognisance of chargesheet has no relevance for default bail application."

To this, Adv. Pasbola replied that the NIA had argued and submitted that the case should have gone before a special court only after the central agency took it over in January 2020, but that was not what the law mandated.

He further stated that activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, a co-accused, too had filed a similar plea earlier this year seeking default bail and that Bharadwaj's counsel and Sr. Adv. Yug Chaudhry had argued before the High Court that Judge K D Vadane, who had taken cognisance of the police's chargesheet and remanded Bharadwaj and 7 other accused in judicial custody, was not a designated special judge. 

Pasbola informed the court that Justice Shinde had reserved his order on Bharadwaj's plea on Aug 4 and that it is yet to be pronounced.

The present case relates to Elgar Parishad, a conclave held in Pune on Dec 31, 2017, with respect to which the Pune Police alleged that it had been backed by Maoists, and provocative speeches made there led to caste violence near Bhima-Koregaon War Memorial the next day.