Madras High Court asks 45-year-old woman to pledge allegiance to Constitution, renounce Maoism as bail conditions

A 45-year-old woman, alleged to be a "Maoist," was granted bail by the Madras High Court on the condition that she pledges her allegiance to the Constitution of India and gives an undertaking that she renounces her belief in Maoism..In an order passed on September 2, a division bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and AD Jagadish Chandira granted bail to one Reena Joyce Mary on the above conditions and also upon furnishing bail bond of ₹25,000..The bench also directed Mary to ensure she did not do anything to "subvert the Constitution of India.".Mary had approached High Court through her counsel R Sankarasubbu after a special court refused to grant her bail..Sankarasubbu argued that there was no concrete evidence against Mary. He said that the only thing the police had against Mary was that she had been found in a mango grove attending Karate classes at the time of her arrest by the Kodaikanal police in 2002..Sankarasubbu further argued that Mary was "a woman fighting for the cause of the poor and downtrodden, and that she had been victimised.".He further said that "Mary had renounced her faith in the Maoist ideology.".The counsel submitted that Mary fell within category “C” of prisoners as per the Supreme Court's Shaheen Welfare Association judgement that provides for release of such undertrials against whom, the prosecution does not have "proper evidence.".The additional public prosecutor Babu Muthumeeran, however, opposed Mary's bail plea saying that she had previously flouted her bail conditions and that she had "continued to indulge in organised terrorist activities," even after her arrest..The High Court, however, held that Mary's was a case fit for bail."Taking into consideration the allegations against the appellant and the period of incarceration after re-arrest from 2016 and the delay in trial and also the undertaking given by the appellant to file her sworn affidavit to reaffirm her allegiance to the Constitution of India, and giving up her faith and belief in the ideology of Maoism we are of the opinion that the appeal may be allowed," the Court said.."The appellant may be granted bail subject to imposition of certain stringent conditions," it stated while setting aside a 2019 order of a special court that had rejected Mary's bail plea.A few months back,a Bench of Justices PN Prakash and AA Nakkiran of the High Court had passed a similar order while granting bail to a suspected Maoist. .[Read Order]