Court sets activist Navlakha free

DELHI HC POINTS OUT GLARING LAPSES IN THE TRANSIT ORDER PASSED BY THE CHIEF METROPOLITAN MAGISTRATE ON AUG 28

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court set activist Gautam Navlakha free on Monday as it set aside his transit remand order issued by a trial court. The development came days after the Supreme Court refused to set up an special investigation team (SIT) over the arrest of Navlakha and four other activists in connection with the violence in Bhima Koregaon.

Pointing out glaring lapses in the transit order passed by the chief metropolitan magistrate on August 28, a bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel quashed the transit remand order holding that it was “unsustainable” and there was noncompliance with the basic requirements of law and the Constitution that are “mandatory in nature”.

“With there being several noncompliances of the mandatory requirement of Article 22 (1), Article 22 (2) of the Constitution and Section 167 read with Section 57 and 41 (1) (ba) of the Cr PC, which are mandatory in nature, it is obvious to this Court that the order passed by the learned CMM on 28th August, 2018 granting transit remand to the Petitioner is unsustainable in law.

The said order is accordingly hereby set aside,” the court said in its 26-page order.

The bench ended the house arrest of Navlakha stating that his detention had exceeded 24 hours, which is “untenable” because the transit remand order has been set aside.

“In view of the section 56 read with section 57 of the CrPC, in absence of remand order, the detention of the petitioner which has exceeded 24 hours is again untenable in law. Consequently the house arrest of the petitioner comes to an end now,” the court said in its oral order.