In a judgement delivered on 7th April 2020, the Supreme Court has rejected the plea of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha to extend period of stay on their arrest. The SC had earlier stayed the arrest after Delhi High Court had quashed the FIR against Gautam Navlakha. But in a judgement last month SC had asked them to surrender by April 6, 2020. The plea for extension of stay was made also in view of the threat of corona virus especially to their vulnerable age group. SC has asked them to surrender within a week.

This Supreme Court’s had earlier ruled to release prisoners on parole to de-congest jails, but even at that time SC did not order to extend this to political prisoners. Both Navlakha and Teltumbde are known and respected pro-people intellectuals. They have both unhesitatingly offered to cooperate with the investigations. They are not even named in the FIR under which they are being investigated. In all these circumstances, the application was a logical one.

CPI(ML)-New Democracy expresses grave concern at the insensitive attitude adopted by the SC on this issue. CPI(ML)-ND calls for participating in all opposition on this issue. We call upon the Court to reviewe this decision.

CPI(ML)-New Democracy

April 11, 2020