NIA moves SC against Bombay HC acquittal of G N Saibaba in alleged Maoist links case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Bombay High Court order acquitting Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba in a case relating to his alleged Maoist links.

Hours after the Bombay High Court order, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) moved the Supreme Court for stay which was declined.

The apex court, however, allowed the NIA to move an application before the registry requesting for urgent listing. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who mentioned the matter for urgent listing and stay of the verdict, that the court cannot stay the acquittal order as the parties are not before it.

The bench said it has also not gone through the case file or the verdict of the High Court.

"You move an application before the registry for taking administrative decision on urgent listing of the matter from the Chief Justice of India,” the bench said.

Earlier in the day, more than eight years after his arrest, the Bombay High Court acquitted Saibaba and ordered his release from jail, noting that the sanction order issued to prosecute the accused in the case under the stringent provisions of the UAPA was "bad in law and invalid".

The Nagpur bench of the high court allowed the appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of the trial court convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment.