The Supreme Court
on Monday rejected a Maharashtra government application seeking a stay on a
Bombay High Court order that acquitted former Delhi University professor G N
Saibaba and others in the Maoist links case.
A bench of
justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta admitted the state government's appeal,
even as it observed that the high court order was "prima facie well
reasoned".
The bench also
rejected the oral request of Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing
for the Maharashtra government for early listing of the appeal and said it will
come in due course.
"There
cannot be any urgency in the order of reversal of conviction. Had it been the
other way around, we would have considered," the bench told Raju.
Justice Mehta
said it is a hard-earned acquittal and in normal course, this court should have
dismissed this appeal.
On March 5, the
Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted Saibaba, 54, and others, noting
that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the case against
him.
The HC had also
set aside Saibaba's life sentence and acquitted five other accused in the case.
It held as
"null and void" the sanction procured by the prosecution to charge
the accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
"The
prosecution has failed to establish any legal seizure or any incriminating
material against the accused," the HC had said.
Saibaba, who is
wheelchair-bound, was lodged in Nagpur Central Jail since his arrest in the
case in 2014.
In March 2017, a
sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district had convicted Saibaba and
five others, including a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University student,
for alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist) and for indulging in activities
amounting to waging war against the country.
The trial court
had held Saibaba and others guilty under various provisions of the UAPA and the
Indian Penal Code.