Justice Ravindra Bhat, on Thursday 3 October, recused himself from hearing the petition filed by activist Gautam Navlakha, challenging the Bombay High Court judgment that refused to quash the FIR registered by Pune police against him, news agency ANI reported. The FIR charges Navlakha with inciting violence at Koregaon Bhima in Pune on 1 January 2018.
Bhat becomes the fifth judge to recuse himself from the case, after CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice NV Ramana, R Subhash Reddy and BR Gavai all had excused themselves earlier this week.
"List the matter before a bench in which I am not the party", the Chief Justice had said on Monday, 30 September.
The matter had been listed before a bench of the Chief Justice and Justices SA Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer.
The Maharashtra government had filed a caveat in the matter seeking to be heard before any orders are passed.
FIR Against Navlakha
On 13 September, the high court had refused to quash the FIR lodged against Navlakha in the 2017 Koregaon-Bhima violence case and for allegedly having Maoist links, noting that there was prima facie substance in the case.
The high court had said, "Considering the magnitude of the case, we feel a thorough investigation is required".
The FIR was lodged against Navlakha and others by the Pune Police in January 2018 after the Elgar Parishad held on 31 December 2017 had allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in Pune district the next day.
The police had also alleged that Navlakha and other accused in the case had Maoist links and were working towards overthrowing the government.
Accused Booked Under UAPA
The high court had, however, extended the protection from arrest to Navlakha for a period of three weeks to enable him to approach the Supreme Court in appeal against the HC order.
Navlakha and the other accused were booked under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code.
Besides Navlakha, four others – Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj – are accused in the case.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)