The Supreme Court on Friday, 18 November, dismissed the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) plea seeking a recall of activist Gautam Navlakha's house arrest order.
The top court had on 10 November passed an interim order allowing the ailing 72-year-old to be shifted to house arrest from Taloja Central jail, where he is lodged in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
According to this, Navlakha was meant to be shifted to house arrest within the next 48 hours (starting 10 November.) However, that got delayed because of the NIA plea.
So what now? The Supreme Court in its 18 November order has directed that Navlakha be shifted to house arrest from Taloja Central jail within the next 24 hours.
A bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy, have also imposed certain conditions in addition to the ones already mentioned in its earlier house arrest order.
But wait, what additional conditions? The additional conditions include the sealing of the kitchen door leading to the exit point and the locking of the grills of the hall. The bench noted that Navlakha has complied with the condition of installing CCTV cameras at both exit points.
Why was the NIA objecting to his house arrest? One of NIA's objections to the 70-year-old ailing activist's house arrest was that the place he would be staying in was owned by the Communist Party of India.
However, the top court pulled up the central agency for these apprehensions.
"Communist Party is a recognised party of India. What is the issue," Justice Joseph asked Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta who appeared for the NIA.
"If it does not shock you then what can I say," the SG said.
"No it does not shock us," the bench responded.