MUMBAI: The high court on Monday granted bail to Varavara Rao for six months on health grounds. He had sought bail on grounds of “deteriorating” health. A petition had also been filed by his wife for his release, citing violation of his fundamental rights.
The HC directed his discharge from a private hospital in suburban Mumbai depending on his health but said he must reside within the jurisdiction of the special National Investigation Agency court in Mumbai and surrender his passport.
“The court needs to strike a balance between the rights of the undertrial and the necessity of bringing the accused to book as early as possible,” said the bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale.
The HC found it a “genuine and fit case” to grant Rao bail. Else, it said, “We will be abdicating our constitutional duty and function as a protector of human rights and right to health covered under right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.”
“This court, as a constitutional court, cannot be a mute spectator to the undertrial being sent to prison and then to government hospitals where his health deteriorates further, to be ultimately shifted to the private superspeciality hospitals, upon intervention of courts and such movements of the undertrial continue back and forth only because his bail application has been turned down on merits under Section 43D (5) of the UAPA,” said the bench.
Rao’s counsel Anand Grover and his wife’s counsel Indira Jaising had argued at length for his liberty as the trial is yet a long way from starting. The charge is not framed yet in the case. When the trial begins, it may take a long time to complete since the prosecution intends to examine at least 200 witnesses, the HC said.
Rao was admitted to Nanavati hospital last November on a court order. But last month, the hospital declared him fit to be discharged. NIA counsel, ASG Anil Singh, sought a stay on the bail order for 3 weeks to enable it to appeal. The HC declined his request. It said, “Since we have ordered the release on health grounds… we do not deem it appropriate to send him to Taloja Central Prison for three weeks which would endanger his life.”
The HC said it cannot sit in appeal over the expert opinion of Nanavati certifying Rao fit for discharge and “capable of self-care”. But it said the discharge report must be read along with earlier reports since July 2020 and held “it cannot be concluded he is fit to be sent back to Taloja prison”. The HC found NIA was “not justified” in relying on the state’s statement of shifting Rao to JJ prison ward. It found the hospital at Taloja central prison is “ill equipped and inadequate to take care” of Rao and agreed with his counsel Grover that shifting him to JJ prison ward “would be fraught with risk of inviting hospital acquired infections, particularly when the undertrial has already suffered repeated bouts of drug resistant bacterial infection to his urinary tract and he also tested positive for Covid-19.”