The Supreme Court has cancelled an order issued by the Kerela High Court order that discharged an accused who allegedly linked to the Maoists. The offences included the provisions of the anti-terror law and sedition.
SC Holds Kerala HC Order Unsustainable
A bench including the Justices MR Shah and AS Bopanna said that the order passed by the High court in discharging the accused is being “quasted and set aside”. The matters are further with the High Court to decide the Revision Petition Nos 732 of 2019 to 724 of 2019 afresh by the Division Bench as per the law and on merits.
Representative of the kerala government , senior advocate Maninder Singh said that they rely upon section 21 of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008. They submitted that the order passed by the single judge bench is unsustainable.
The bench noted that they have noted the section 21(1) of the NIA Act and the revision application will be heard by the Division Bench.
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Singh urged the apex court to allow the appeals and remand the matter to the high court. To which, the supreme court said that they are allowing the state government’s appeals. But the present case is based on “impugned judgement” and the order has been passed by a single bench which is against the statutory provision.
They added that the revision petitions should be decided upon by the Division bench of the high court at the earliest and within a period of six months from the date of receipt of the present order.
Top Court Clarified No Merit Judgement
Furthermore, the top court clarified that their judgement is not based on the merits in favour of any of the parties involvement. It is a common impugned judgement of the high court/
In one of the cases, the allegations made in November 2013 against the accused along with five other members had reportedly distributed pamphlets that encouraged sedition amongst the tribal community.
