Supreme Court refuses to stay Bombay High Court acquittal of GN Saibaba in Maoist link case

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Bombay High Court's decision to acquit former Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba and five other accused in a case involving allegations that they had links to banned Maoist activities. .A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta orally observed that the High Court's decision appeared to be well-reasoned and that there could not be any urgent order to reverse such an acquittal order. .The Court, however, granted the Maharashtra government leave to move ahead with its appeal against the High Court's March 5 judgment. ."We can grant leave. Then you (State government) can file for early hearing. There are two acquittals by different benches. Prima facie, we find that judgment is 'very well reasoned.' There cannot be any urgency to reverse orders of acquittal," Justice Gavai said. .This view was echoed by Justice Mehta, who added, "Urgency (would be) only to reverse conviction (and not acquittal) ... There has to be grounds for (the reversal of an acquittal).".Saibaba and other accused were arrested for allegedly having Maoist links and for indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country. Following the arrest, Saibaba was lodged in Nagpur Central Jail in connection with the case. .A trial court convicted him and the co-accused in 2017. It found that Saibaba and two other accused persons possessed naxal literature with the intent to circulate it among underground naxlites at Gadchiroli and residents of the district in order to incite people to resort to violence..These findings were challenged by Saibaba in an appeal before the Bombay High Court. Justices Rohit B Deo and Anil Pansare of the High Court first acquitted the disabled professor on October 14, 2022 ( a Friday). The Maharashtra government immediately filed an appeal against this acquittal, and the appeal was heard by the Supreme Court a day later in a special Saturday sitting held on October 15, 2022, Saturday. The Supreme Court bench of Justices MR Shah and Bela M Trivedi proceeded to suspend the acquittal. The top court noted that the High Court's acquittal order rested primarily on the ground that due sanction was not taken before proceeding with the case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. It opined that the High Court appeared to be wrong to acquit Saibaba on such a technical ground..Subsequently, after a lengthy hearing, a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar on April 19, 2023, set aside the High Court acquittal judgment and remanded the matter to the High Court for fresh consideration..On March 5, this year, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted Saibaba on merits and reversed the trial court's 2017 conviction. A bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes also refused to stay the acquittal order. The Maharashtra government then proceeded to file a second appeal before the Supreme Court against Professor Saibaba to challenge his March 5 acquittal. .Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the Maharashtra government.