GN Saibaba acquittal: Supreme Court to hold special sitting on Saturday to hear Maharashtra government appeal against Bombay High Court verdict

The Supreme Court will hold a special sitting tomorrow to hear the appeal filed by Maharashtra government against the decision of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, acquitting former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba in an alleged Maoist links case..The matter is listed for hearing at 11 am before a bench of Justices MR Shah and Bela M Trivedi.The Supreme Court does not in the normal course sit to hear cases on Saturdays and Sundays.The matter was listed after an urgent mentioning was made before a bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli in the evening by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta seeking listing of the case on priority. .While the bench said that it could not stay the order acquitting Saibaba, it directed for the case to be listed before an appropriate bench after the Chief Justice of India (CJI) provided his administrative approval.The Court also specified that the State government could move an application seeking an earlier hearing tomorrow.Earlier today, the Bombay High Court bench of Justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare had allowed an appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 decision of the trial court convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment based on the fact that the Sessions Court framed charges against Saibaba in the absence of sanction from the Central government under Section 45(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act..The High Court had recorded that while terrorism poses an ominous threat to national security and every legitimate weapon in the armoury must be deployed against it, a civil democracy cannot sacrifice procedural safeguards afforded to the accused.“We are inclined to hold, that every safeguard, however miniscule, legislatively provided to the accused, must be zealously protected,” the judgment said.Nonetheless, the High Court took note of the request of the prosecution urging that if the appeal was not decided on merits, and only on the point of sanction, they may be given the liberty to obtain proper sanction and try the accused.“In view of the well-entrenched position of law, that the rule against double jeopardy has no application if the trial is held vitiated due to invalidity or absence of sanction, we see no reason to dilate any further on the said submission,” the High Court had said..In its plea, the Maharashtra government has contended that the case was decided by the High Court on the procedural lapse without going into the merits of the evidence."The High Court has without considering the fact that the point of sanction was neither raised nor argued decided the entire matter solely on the point of sanction and held the trial to be vitiated," the appeal states.The State has also submitted that the High Court erred in relying on cases under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) but the statutory scheme envisaged by Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) under which Saibaba has been charged, is different.