SC adjourns till Jan 2024 hearing on activist Jyoti Jagtap's bail plea

New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred till January next year hearing on the bail plea filed by activist Jyoti Jagtap, who is behind the bars under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.

“List the matter in the third week of January on a Wednesday. We will decide Shoma Sen's appeal first and it will come after that,” said a bench headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose. It may be recalled that the apex court has decided to take up Prof. Sen’s bail plea for hearing on January 10, 2024.

Justice Bose added that the composition of the bench having Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Augustine George Masih is “temporary” because a 5-judge Constitution Bench is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Earlier, the top court had remarked that it will have to find out if Jagtap’s case falls within the parameters laid down by the top court in granting bail to co-accused Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.

Gonsalves and Ferreira were ordered to be released by the Supreme Court on bail in July this year considering their 5-year term of incarceration as undertrial prisoners.

Jagtap had petitioned the Supreme Court against an order of the Bombay High Court denying her bail.

The NIA had already filed a charge sheet against Jagtap and others at a special court in Mumbai. The case pertains to inciting people and giving provocative speeches during the Elgar Parishad organised by the activists of Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada in Maharashtra's Pune on December 31, 2017, which allegedly promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and a state-wide agitation in Maharashtra.