A Special NIA Court in Mumbai has dismissed activist Gautam Navlakha’s application seeking permission to travel to Delhi for 45 days, sharply criticising the repeated nature of such requests and calling it a “deliberate attempt to circumvent judicial restrictions”.

Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, had sought leave to visit Delhi between July 15 and August 30, citing multiple personal grounds. These included the deteriorating health of his 86-year-old sister, a reunion with his partner’s family after five years, personal domestic matters, and medical check-ups.

Appearing for Navlakha, Advocate Wahab Khan argued that his client had previously complied with all conditions imposed by the court when allowed to travel and that the present request was genuine and limited in duration.

However, the plea was opposed by Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Shetty, who contended that the gravity of the charges against Navlakha warranted a stricter approach.

Special Judge Chakor S Baviskar, while rejecting the application, noted that a similar request had been granted in November 2024 due to serious grounds. However, Navlakha’s subsequent plea to permanently relocate to Delhi had already been denied by the court on June 19 this year.

“Only because that application [in 2024] was allowed, it does not automatically give license to Navlakha to claim the same liberty each and every time. It does not mean that, every now and then, Navlakha on the same grounds, for the same reason, should be granted permission,” Justice Baviskar said.

Furthermore, the court held that Navlakha’s repeated applications on the same grounds appeared to be a calculated effort to achieve indirectly what had been denied directly. “Now, perhaps to give go-by to the intention and directions of the High Court… Navlakha ingeniously has found out the trick of moving such application after application with the same prayer on the same grounds to facilitate him to reside at Delhi. It is not at all expected,” the order stated.

Although the court refrained from imposing costs on Navlakha, the judge made it clear that such tactics were unacceptable. “There is legal trite that, the thing which you cannot do directly, cannot do indirectly as well,” he noted.

The Elgar Parishad case, in which Navlakha is a key accused, pertains to alleged inflammatory speeches at a conclave held in Pune in 2017, which authorities claim triggered violence at the Bhima Koregaon war memorial the next day.

– Ends