THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday sought urgent listing of its plea before the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court’s order of granting default bail to advocate-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested and had been in jail for over two years in the Bhima-Koregaon case. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for NIA, mentioned the plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana to list the case tomorrow for hearing. CJI said he would see into listing the matter. Mentioning the matter, Solicitor General urged the court to list the matter on Tuesday for hearing saying, “Order will come into effect on 8th, so I have to succeed or lose tomorrow.”

 

On December 1, the High Court had granted Bharadwaj default bail, saying, that the extension of time for investigation and detention under provisions of Section 43D(2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure had not been done by a court of competent jurisdiction. The High Court, however, directed a Mumbai special NIA court to take up the case on December 8 and decide on the conditions of her bail and date of release. Bharadwaj was arrested on August 28, 2018. Bhardwaj, one of the several civil liberties activists in the Bhima-Koregaon case, has been booked under stringent provisions of the UAPA for an alleged conspiracy to topple the Government. The High Court said the guarantee of personal liberty under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution cannot be thwarted on technical grounds that her plea for default bail was premature. The High Court had, however, denied bail to eight rights activist.