Urban Naxals: Supreme Court set to hear Maharashtra government appeal

The Supreme Court fixed March 12 for hearing the Maharashtra government’s appeal against alleged urban Naxal Gautam Navlakha’s transit bail that was set aside by the Delhi High Court in October last year.

In its appeal, the state government had questioned how the Delhi High Court entertained a habeas corpus petition by Navlakha while he was in lawful custody of the police. This order on October 1 was passed when Navlakha and four other activists — Varavara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves — were ordered to remain under house arrest for a period of four weeks by the Supreme Court on September 28, 2018. 

The state government was then forced to approach the apex court as the Delhi HC set aside the transit bail obtained by Maharashtra police to take Navlakha to Pune.

With the hearing set to begin on March 12, it would be another confrontation between the activists and state government, particularly since the state government has had an upper hand in the two previous rounds that took place before the top court.