Gautam Navlakha Moves Supreme Court Against Rejection of Default Bail by Bombay High Court

In 2018, Gautam Navlakha was accused of the Bhima Koregaon violence. He has now approached the Supreme Court against the rejection of his plea by the Bombay High Court for default bail.

According to section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the prescribed upper-limit to file the charge sheet is of 90 days. National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to file the charge sheet within the limit authorized due to which Gautam Navlakha has sought bail.

Gautam Navlakha had contended that the period for which he was confined to his house under house arrest should also be computed as part of the judicial custody. This should be taken into account when deciding the custody period under section 167(2). This contended before the Bombay High Court. Whether the period of custody during the house arrest will be constituted for section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was the question before the Bombay High Court.

Bombay High Court bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik rejected the plea on 8th February because illegal detention cannot be taken into account while computing the 90 day custody period for grant of default bail.

The Delhi High Court declared Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest authorized by the Magistrate illegal. Under section 167(2) of the CrPC, this period will not be part of the custody period for the grant of statutory bail.

It was noted further by the Court that nobody was allowed to meet him during the period of house arrest, barring the lawyers and ordinary residents of the house. There was no access to him or any occasion to interrogate him for the NIA.

The order stated, “As the transit remand order was stayed, it cannot be said that the appellant was under detention of police for investigation”.

The Court reasoned that the mandate under section 167(2) was understandable- the basic requirement is that the detention of the accused in the custody should be authorized by the Magistrate, this was with regard for statutory bail to be entitled.

Gautam Navlakha’s plea will be heard by a three-Judge bench of Justices UU Lalit, Indira Banerjee and KM Joseph on 3rd March,