The Bombay High Court on Friday acquitted former Delhi University professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba in a case for his links with Maoists. However, he has been acquitted by the court for procedural lapses by the prosecution, and not on the merits of the case.

GN Saibaba, a former professor of English in Ram Lal Anand College of Delhi University, was acquitted by a division bench of Justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare based on the fact that the session court had framed charges against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act without sanction from the central government, which is required under Section 45(1) of the act.

The bench said that even though the charges against the accused are serious and terrorism poses a great threat to the country, a civil democracy can’t bypass procedural safeguards available to the accused. The bench said that “every safeguard, however miniscule, legislatively provided to the accused, must be zealously protected.”

The court also said that the argument that the end justifies the means and procedural safeguards can be ignored to prosecute and punish the accused can’t be accepted. “The Siren Song that the end justifies the means, and that the procedural safeguards are subservient to the overwhelming need to ensure that the accused is prosecuted and punished, must be muzzled by the voice of Rule of Law,” the judgement read.

The court further added that any such diversion from the law will be counterproductive, as it will give the vested interests. The bench said, “any aberration shall only be counter productive, since empirical evidence suggests that departure from the due process of law fosters an ecosystem in which terrorism burgeons and provides fodder to vested interests whose singular agenda is to propagate false narratives.”

The court held that the trial against the accused in the session was null and void due to the said procedural lapses.

However, the division bench accepted the request of the prosecution that if the appeal is granted on the basis of the matter of sanction and not on merits, they may be given permission to try the accused after obtaining the necessary sanction. The bench said that as the trial has been declared null and void due to the absence of the trial, the principle of double jeopardy does not arise here, and the police can reopen the case after obtaining sanctions.

The court said, “In view of the well entrenched position of law, that the rule against double jeopardy has no application if the trial is held vitiated due to invalidity or absence of sanction, we see no reason to dilate any further on the said submission”.

GN Saibaba and several others were convicted and sentenced to life by the sessions court of Gadchiroli in March 2017 for association with the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), an affiliate of CPI(Maoist). Saibaba and the others were found to be posing Naxal literature, and the court had said that they intended to circulate the literature among people in Gadchiroli to incite people to join the Naxals.

Most of the material both in physical and electronic form was found with Saibaba, and allegedly he had introduced others accused in the case with the Maoist organisation.

They were charged under Sections 13, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of the UAPA and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code. The others charged in the case were agriculturists Mahesh Kariman Tirki (22) and late Pandu Pora Narote (27), professor Hem Keshavdatta Mishra (32), journalist Prashant Rahi Narayan Sanglikar (54) and labourer Vijay Nan Tirki (3). GN Saibaba was arrested later, and their trials were clubbed with his trial.

On February 2014, Additional Chief Secretary Amitabh Ranjan had granted sanction to prosecute the other five under the UAPA, but the sanction was not granted for GN Saibaba who was arrested in May 2014.

However, the High Court stated that the sanction to prosecute the other five was also granted without following the procedure, and therefore declared the sanction invalid. The court said that the sanction was granted without proper application of mind, and that the sanctioning authority only paid lip service to the requirement of considering the report of the appointed authority. As the sanction order didn’t contain any summary of the review of the report, the bench held that the authority had sought the report only for formality and didn’t consider it properly. Therefore, the sanction granted to prosecute the other five was declared invalid by the court.

“Having so observed, and as recorded supra, the sanction given is none-the-less invalid in view of the infraction of the legislative safeguard of the requirement to consider the report of the appointed authority. The purported report contains the conclusion sans reasoning,” the bench said.

As a result, the entire trial against all the six accused has been declared null and void, and the session court’s order has been set aside. The court ordered the release of all the accused in the case from jail, except Vijay Nan Tirki who is already out on bail and Pandu Pora Narote who died during the hearing of the appeal. Court also discharged Vijay’s bail bond.

Earlier, the High Court had rejected a plea by GN Saibaba to suspend his conviction on medical grounds. Saibaba is bound to a wheelchair due to paralysis caused by polio, and had said that he has multiple ailments.