First you complained about Taloja jail, now you want to stay: HC to Elgar Parishad accused

The Bombay high court (HC) has refused to grant any interim relief to Elgar Parishad accused Mahesh Raut and some of the other co-accused currently lodged in Taloja jail who sought a stay on the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court order permitting their transfer to Mumbai Central Prison .

The Bombay high court (HC) has refused to grant any interim relief to Elgar Parishad accused Mahesh Raut and some of the other co-accused currently lodged in Taloja jail who sought a stay on the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court order permitting their transfer to Mumbai Central Prison (MCP). Raut and others filed moved HC challenging the order on the grounds that they were not given an opportunity to oppose the transfer.

The Bombay high court refused to grant any interim relief to the applicants. (HT FILE)

Raut’s application stated that MCP was already overcrowded and as it is far from Taloja jail, he would not able to get medicines which are provided to him by his family who live in Navi Mumbai.

The division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice NJ Jamadar was informed by advocate Vijay Hiremath that the transfer was ordered at the behest of the superintendent of Taloja jail and passed without following due procedure.

The petition stated that as per prison and NIA rules, the judge had to ensure that proper procedure for transferring an undertrial prisoner was followed in the form of issuing a notice to the prisoner, giving him a chance to have his say, and then deciding on whether to transfer the prisoner. It added that the judge did not follow any of the procedures, hence his order should be set aside.

After hearing Hiremath and perusing the petition, the bench asked, “You have been filing various applications about difficulties in Taloja jail, but now you want to stay there.”

As the state and NIA informed the court that they had not received copies of the petition, the court asked Hiremath to provide them with the same and posted hearing to August 11.

Hiremath and advocate R Satyanarayanan insisted that some temporary relief be granted till the next date of hearing, the bench refused to pass any orders.