NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed a trial court in Maharashtra to take time-bound steps to frame charges in the Elgar Parishad-linked Surjagarh arson case against lawyer-activist Surendra Gadling, who has been in custody for nearly seven years without trial.
The order was passed on January 21. A copy of the order was uploaded on Friday.
Gadling is the only Elgar Parishad accused still incarcerated without bail after the Bombay high court on Friday granted bail to two more accused in the Elgar Parishad case.
A bench of justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi took note of the prolonged delay in adjudicating Gadling’s bail plea and directed the high court’s registrar general to ensure that a regular presiding judge is posted within seven days to the Additional Sessions Court at Aheri, if it is presently being run by an in-charge judge due to a vacancy.
The court further directed that all records, including seized electronic evidence, pending before the special NIA court in Mumbai, should be transmitted to the Aheri court within 10 days. It also directed the trial court to allow “inspection of the material to Gadling within three weeks, frame charges within four weeks thereafter, return the records to the NIA court in safe custody,” and ensure Gadling’s appearance through “video conferencing” without hindrance.
Gadling approached the Supreme Court seeking bail, noting that he has been in custody since his arrest in 2019 in the Surjagarh arson case. He has been in jail since 2018 in the Elgar Parishad case, where the trial has yet to commence.
On January 21, senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Gadling, informed the court that despite a December 6, 2025, trial court order directing the transfer of original records from the NIA court in Mumbai to the trial court at Aheri, delays were inevitable as the material was also required for proceedings in Mumbai. He also pointed out that the Aheri court lacked a regularly posted presiding officer, making it impossible to frame charges or proceed with the trial, and argued that Gadling deserved bail in light of the ongoing procedural delays.
The Surjagarh arson case relates to an incident on December 25, 2016, when 76 vehicles transporting iron ore from the Surjagarh mines in Maharashtra were set ablaze, an act attributed by the police to members of the banned CPI (Maoist). Around 15 people were arrested in the case.
Gadling was arrested on June 6, 2018, in the Elgar Parishad case. In January 2019, the police claimed that material recovered in that investigation linked him to the Surjagarh arson, following which he was chargesheeted along with others, including poet Varavara Rao, for allegedly conspiring to disrupt mining operations. Rao was granted medical bail in both cases in 2021.
In 2022, the prosecution told the Gadchiroli sessions court that the trial could not proceed as the original records were lying before the NIA court in Mumbai. Gadling’s bail pleas were subsequently rejected by the sessions court and the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court. After the case was transferred in 2023 to a newly established sessions court at Aheri, his discharge application remained pending.
In October 2025, the Aheri court directed Gadling’s production to argue the discharge plea, noting that denying him the opportunity would compound the injustice caused by delay. On November 3, 2025, the court directed production of the original records, a direction yet to be complied with. Proceedings were further stalled after the presiding judge was transferred on December 31, 2025, with no replacement having been appointed to date.