Image Courtesy: livelaw.in
The Supreme Court has refused to vacate its November 10 order directing Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest and has directed the National Investigating Agency (NIA) to execute the same within 24 hours.
In its November 10 order, the bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy had directed the NIA to conduct necessary evaluation of the place indicated for house arrest by the petitioner within 48 hours. However, today marks the 8th day post the passing of the apex court order and in complete defiance of the same, the NIA failed to execute it under certain pretenses.
One of the objections raised was a reiteration of what it had already contended during the hearing of the plea for house arrest, about Navlakha’s brother-in-law being one of the doctors signing off his medical reports. The bench said, “all these arguments were argued more than ably by the ASG. Are you pursuing a review of our order or seeking to vacate it?”
The NIA also raised objection that the place chosen for house arrest is above a public library which belongs to Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to which the bench said If there are any arguments based on the premises then they could argue but it does not see any issue that the library belongs to a political party.
Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan appearing for Navlakha submitted that it is a residential unit, a floor above the library and no member of the public goes to read there.
During the arguments, when the ASG was pointing to loopholes, Justice Joseph commented, “In case you are finding some or other loophole to see our order is not complied with then we have to take a serious view of it”.
Justice Roy also commented, “Do not bring in conditions to say that with your entire police force you cannot keep a watch on an ailing 70 year old”. When the ASG tried to delay the matter further asking for a next date, for the matter to be posted on Monday, Justice Joseph was reportedly irked, “you think we cannot see through attempts to delay the case. For what purpose will we post on Monday?”
SG Tushar Mehta also alleged that Navlakha has links to ISI and also with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir! To this Justice Roy said, “So? You say you cannot monitor then we will”.
The bench then dismissed the application of the NIA to vacate it November 10 order and directed some more conditions to be applied, including installing more CCTV camera at certain locations without invading privacy and sealing one exit of the kitchen.
The stringent conditions imposed by the court for Navlakha’s house arrest may be read here.
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