The Maharashtra government on Wednesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's order of October 1 that set aside transit remand order against activist Gautam Navlakha.
The HC has freed him from house arrest as well. He was one of five activists arrested on August 28 in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
In a special leave petition, the state government contended that the HC erred in entertaining writ of habeas corpus and quashing the transit remand.
In transit remand, police are not expected to produce case diary before a magistrate, not having jurisdiction, it said. The HC misread Section 167 (1) and (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code which stated that the case diary is to be produced before the jurisdictional magistrate only, it said.
"In the case in hand, the police arrested five persons from different places in the country. It was, therefore, not expected and not possible to produce the case diary before the concerned courts for seeking transit remand," the state government contended.
Navlakha was arrested without a warrant but grounds were informed to him orally, it added.
The state government further said the HC doubted the procedure of arrest without sufficient basis.
Notably, the apex court had last week extended the period of house arrest of five activists by four weeks to enable them to seek appropriate legal remedy.
The top court had also allowed the police to proceed in the matter in accordance with law.
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