The Bombay high court on Friday reserved its order on the bail application filed by Kalyan youth Areeb Majeed, arrested for joining ISIS.
Majeed has filed the bail plea through advocate Mubin Solkar on law point that a sessions judge who was not appointed as a special NIA judge had granted extension to file a chargesheet and hence this extension was not legal in the eyes of law so the applicant is entitled to statutory bail.
Advocate Solkar had argued before the court that the period of 90 days after Majeed’s arrest was getting over on February 25, 2015. The NIA had filed an application before the NIA court on February 16, for extension of time to file a chargesheet and also for extension of custody of the accused.
According to advocate Solkar, the special NIA judge Y.D. Shinde had fixed February 24, for hearing these applications, however the judge was not available that day and hence the NIA produced Majeed before another judge P.R. Deshmukh who allowed both the applications filed by the investigating agency.
The contention of applicant is that the NIA Act is quite clear that judge Deshmukh was not appointed by the Central government under section 11 of the NIA Act and only a judge who is appointed as a special NIA judge can deal with such applications.
Government pleader opposed the plea by Majeed and said that the principal session judge under his administrative capacity had appointed judge Deshmukh as a special judge and hence he had powers to extend custody of accused as well as grant extension to file a chargesheet. Majeed’s lawyer however, opposed it by saying that only the Centre can appoint special judge that too after consulting Chief Justice and hence principal Judge of sessions court did not have power to appoint a special judge. The bench has reserved its judgement on the bail plea.
