Deepali Kalia-
A three-judge Supreme Court Bench comprising of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Annirudhha Bose asked the Karnataka High Court to decide on the bail plea of Mohan Nayak, one of the accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case without being influenced of the order by the High Court that had quashed charges against him.
Following the Karnataka High Court’s impugned order on 22nd April 2021 which had quashed the order of the Bengaluru Commissioner of Police and the supplementary charge sheet, the charges against Nayak under the Karnataka Control of Organized Crimes Act, 2000 (KCOCA) were dropped.
High Court had quashed the charges by stating that “All the subsequent acts namely sanction order, charge sheet and the order taking cognizance flow from the approval order.” “If the approval order itself is bad in law, the sanction order, the charge sheet and the approval order so far as the offences under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act against the petitioner (Nayak) have no legs to stand.”
In response, the sister of Gauri Lankesh, Kavita Lakesh had filed a special leave petition challenging the Karnataka High Court Judgment and had contended in the plea that Nayak was seeking bail plea by relying on said order.
The Apex Court has issued notice and sought the response of the Karnataka government and others.
“Issue notice on the applications seeking permission to file special leave petition, prayer for interim relief and special leave petition.” The Bench said.
“After hearing counsel for the respondent No.6, for the time being, we observe that the bail application filed by respondent No.6 before the High Court be decided without being influenced by the impugned order. For, it is a subject matter of challenge in this special leave petition”, the Bench added.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on July 15.