The Supreme Court postponed on February 13 the hearing of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira's bail applications. Both men have been detained since August 2018 after being arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Naxals in the Bhima Koregaon case. According to the 1967 Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the accused are being charged. 

The order was issued by a division bench made up of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

“Accommodation has been sought on behalf of the solicitor-general. List the matter as the first item on Tuesday, February 21.”
“The solicitor-general and additional solicitor-general are leading us. We have gone through the brief. It will take us some time. Therefore, I would request you to post the matter on a non-miscellaneous day,” As the matter was being considered, the Union Government's attorney made a submission. Then, Justice Bose reminded the attorneys that an adjournment had also been requested previously.

“Tomorrow, we will list it as the first item after any fresh matter,” Justice Bose told Senior Advocate Rebecca John, appearing for Gonsalves. “But no more adjournment tomorrow,” the judge cautioned the counsel for the other side.

The bench changed its mind after first ordering that the matter be listed on this Tuesday. Justice Bose addressed the solicitor general who had just walked into the courtroom. “Mr Solicitor, your junior indicated that you will take some time. We thought of posting it tomorrow. But there is some bench…”

This is the third time in a row that the union government has requested an adjournment. The bench had hoped that "additional adjournments would not be taken" last week. The court has made it clear that this is an issue of personal liberty. Similar to this, the top court mentioned that the petitioners had already been languishing in judicial custody for almost five years during the hearing that came before that on February 6.

Gonsalves and Ferreira filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in response to a Bombay High Court ruling from December 2021 that refused them default bail while granting Sudha Bharadwaj, another co-accused, the same privilege. The high court rejected the two petitioners' request for relief in May of last year, despite the fact that they had challenged this order in a later review petition they had submitted.

Case Title: Vernon v. State of Maharashtra & Arun v. State of Maharashtra

Citation: Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 5432 of 2022 and Diary No. 24825 of 2022