Navlakha must pay for security during house arrest: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said activist Gautam Navlakha cannot escape the liability of paying towards expenses for the Maharashtra government making available police personnel for his security during his house arrest, as he himself had requested the house arrest. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) told a bench of justices MM Sundresh and SVN Bhatti that Navlakha, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is required to make a payment of Rs 1.64 crore towards expenses for security.

“If you have sought for it, you have to pay,” the bench told the counsel representing Navlakha. “The liability, you know, you can’t escape because you asked for it (house arrest),” the apex court observed. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, representing the NIA, said Rs 1.64 crore is due and 70-year-old Navlakha has to make the payment for the security provided during his house arrest. Terming the order of house arrest as “unusual”, Raju said a large number of police personnel have been deployed round-the-clock for security during his house arrest.

The counsel representing Navlakha said there is no difficulty in paying per se but the issue was with respect to calculation. The ASG said Navlakha had earlier made payments of over Rs 10 lakh for this and now he is avoiding making payment.

“There is no question of avoiding,” Navlakha’s counsel said. His counsel said the NIA’s plea, challenging the December 19, 2023 order of the Bombay High Court which had granted bail to Navlakha, was also required to be heard. The high court had granted him bail but stayed its order for three weeks after the NIA had sought time to file an appeal in the top court.

On January 5, the apex court had extended the stay imposed by the high court on the operation of its order granting bail to Navlakha. “As long as you continue to have this facility, the figures are going to fly higher and higher. What we are today thinking is, instead of allowing it to touch the highest level, we will give one week time,” the bench told

Navlakha’s counsel.