The Supreme Court on Friday extended the interim stay on the bail granted to civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon violence case by Bombay High Court on December 19.
Navlakha is facing prosecution under the IPC and UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) for alleged Moist links in the appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
A bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti passed the order pending listing of the present appeal filed by NIA along with connected matters of similarly placed accused which are pending before different benches of the Supreme Court.
While granting bail to Navlakha, Bombay High Court had earlier stayed the bail for three weeks to enable the NIA to file its appeal in the Supreme Court against the grant of bail.
On Friday when the matter came up for hearing, the bench after briefly hearing senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi for Navlakha and additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju for NIA, referred the matter to the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud for listing the matter before the appropriate bench.
This was because in the matters connected to various other accused persons, different orders were passed by other judges sitting in different combinations.
Singhvi argued that Navlakha was entitled to relief on parity with other co-accused Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Fereira, and Anand Teltumbde who are already on bail granted by the apex court.
