Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Acquittal Of Ex-DU Professor GN Saibaba In Maoist Links Case

This comes hours after NIA moved the apex court to stay the HC order. However, the top court allowed the NIA to move an application before the registry requesting urgent listing.

GN Saibaba

Source : PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Bombay High Court order acquitting former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba in a case related to his alleged Maoist links, news agency PTI reported.

This comes hours after National Investigation Agency (NIA) moved the apex court to stay the HC order. However, the top court allowed the NIA to move an application before the registry requesting urgent listing.

As per the PTI report, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who mentioned the matter for urgent listing and stay of verdict, that the court cannot stay the acquittal order as the parties are not before it.

''You move an application before the registry for taking administrative decision on urgent listing of the matter from the Chief Justice of India,” the bench said.

Earlier in the day, eight years after his arrest, the Bombay High Court acquitted Saibaba and ordered his immediate release from the jail. He is currently lodged at Nagpur central prison.

As per a PTI report, a division bench of Justice Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare permitted the appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of the trial court that convicted him in the Maoist links case and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The trial court had held Saibaba and the others guilty under various provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

As per PTI, the Nagpur bench on Friday noted that the sanction order issued to prosecute the accused in the case under the stringent provisions of the UAPA was "bad in law and invalid".

Apart from the former DU professor, the bench also allowed the appeal of five other convicts in the case as it acquitted them. One of the five died pending a hearing of the appeal.