July 3, 2015
On 27 June 2015, the division bench of
the High Court of Maharashtra ordered that no further time be wasted
on the next date of hearing (i.e. on 30) due to delay in fulfilling
the technicalities so that when the bail is granted on the same day,
Dr. GN Saibaba can be rushed for appropriate medical attention for
his fast deteriorating health. The observations of the court had an
urgency not seen before in the last 13 months, unprecedented in
manner and intent, in which the judicial mind applied itself on the
specific and basic needs of a 90 percent disabled Delhi University
professor, incarcerated for his political opinions. Yet this was what
his lawyers were trying in vain to impress upon the court in every
bail petition filed on his behalf. And this was what a cross section
of the civil society, intellectuals, retired judges, teachers and
civil libertarians have been time and again pointing out with growing
concern and disbelief of the steady deterioration of health of a 90
percent disabled professor—who cannot meet his everyday needs
without special assistance—getting into a spiral with one medical
complication after the other and the courts till very recently
turning a deaf ear to his plight. What was more of concern and
disbelief was the lack of application of judicial mind in the
pronouncements of the courts so far as the prosecution’s
non-existent claims of “good treatment” and “good facilities”
given to Dr. GN Saibaba in the prison as well as hospital was taking
precedence in its denial of the much needed relief to the professor.
Notwithstanding the claims of the prosecution of better treatment
given to Dr. GN Saibaba they themselves admitted on record before the
sessions court Gadchiroli on 14 May 2014 that Dr. GN Saibaba’s
health had indeed deteriorated.
Even the orders of the sessions court
to move him from the anda cell to another room with a cooler and
three more people to assist him was also blatantly violated by the
police without any grounds. The utter contempt of the police in
Maharashtra for court orders was to see playing out in real terms in
the case of Dr. GN Saibaba.
As his lawyers were preparing to move
the HC in the Nagpur bench, it was the letter of an activist Ms.
Poornima Upadhyay to the Chief Justice of Maharashtra High Court with
the report in The Hindu showing the violation of the court orders and
the deteriorating health of Dr. GN Saibaba—to the extent that any
imminent possibility of a medical emergency that can be fatal would
have been construed by every discerning mind as judicial
culpability—did the court intervene to bring in a semblance of
order by granting relief in the form of a temporary 3 month bail for
medical recuperation. But even as this order is getting operational
in all earnest, the Maharashtra edition of Times of India and Indian
Express (Dated 03 July 2015) quotes the state government version of
its intent to challenge the temporary relief given to Dr. GN Saibaba
by the High Court in the Supreme Court! Though the court still has
not recognized Dr. GN Saibaba’s genuine right for a permanent bail
we believe that the present order of the division bench of the
Maharashtra High Court is a significant step in that direction.
In the mean time certain sections of
the media have reported that the Mumbai High Court has imposed
restrictions on Saibaba in using mobile phones, computers or laptops
while others insisted that security forces will be stationed before
the residence of Dr. GN Saibaba in Delhi as per court orders. Both
the reports are patently false only to further stigmatize the
incarcerated professor.
As per the order of the High Court, the
lawyers of Dr. GN Saibaba had submitted a list of 8 super specialty
hospitals from Delhi and Hyderabad including AIIMS, New Delhi and
NIMS, Hyderabad before the Sessions Court, Gadchiroli. The Central
Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) Nagpur where Dr. GN Saibaba was
being treated had referred him to the AIIMS, New Delhi and this has
already been reported to the Mumbai High Court.
The Committee extends its greetings to
all the doctors who treated Dr. GN Saibaba at various hospitals in
Nagpur.
Significantly the temporary relief
given to Dr. GN Saibaba by the Mumbai High Court is the partial
fruition of the hard work put in by his lawyers in Gadchiroli,
Nagpur, Mumbai and Delhi. Our greetings to all of them. It is
significant for all of us who tirelessly campaigned for the defence
and release of Dr. GN Saibaba—civil libertarians, teachers,
intellectuals, students, workers, social/people’s activists,
artists, journalists, film makers, writers. It is significant for all
of us who could see through the growing apathy of the powers that be
and to realize further that the struggle is half won and the need to
keep the momentum up to ensure his unconditional release. It once
again reminds us the plight of hundreds of thousands of such people
incarcerated for their political beliefs; dissent; kept behind bars
for years together with the farce of the trial at a snail’s pace.
In Solidarity
COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENCE AND RELEASE OF DR. GN SAIBABA
COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENCE AND RELEASE OF DR. GN SAIBABA
- See more at:
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