Govind Pansare family, state want accused's bail to be cancelled

Mumbai: Family members of slain activist Govind Pansare and the government of Maharashtra have approached Bombay high court seeking cancellation of bail granted to Sameer Gaikwad arrested in connection with the Pansare murder case.

Late Pansare’s daughter Megha Hemant Butte and daughter-in-law Megha Pansare, through advocates Abhay Nevagi and Amit Singh, have moved the high court contending that when the bail plea of an accused is rejected by a superior court, the lower court while considering bail is required to take note of the grounds on which the superior court passed the order.

They claimed that the order of the trial court has been passed as if the order is on merits of trial. They further claimed that the court observed that one witness did not state anything about Gaikwad in the second charge sheet filed by SIT and this
observation was untenable and beyond the scope of power conferred on the Sessions court while dealing with the bail application.

The petition said that when successive bail applications were rejected by courts, there was further onus on the court to consider subsequent application for grant of bail and if the court was of the opinion that bail had to be granted, the said court would have to give specific reason why in spite of such earlier rejection, the subsequent application for bail should be granted.

The petition pointed out that the trial court had granted bail to Gaikwad without specifically dealing with grounds on which bail was rejected by the high court and this was violative of the principle of binding nature of judgment of a superior court.

According to the petitioners, there was no change in circumstance after the high court rejected Gaikwad’s bail and hence, the judge had erred in granting bail. The matter came up for hearing before justice Revati Mohite-Dere who issued notice to Gaikwad and posted the hearing after three weeks.