Gujarat High Court Issues Notice Over Journalist's Petition Challenging Non-Bailable Warrant

The Gujarat High Court (HC) has issued a notice to the Gujarat government and Adani Enterprises on a petition moved by journalist Ravi Nair challenging a non-bailable warrant issued against him by a Gandhinagar sessions court, following which he was taken into custody and sent to jail on September 17. A single-judge bench of the High Court on Saturday passed an order to issue the notice to the respondents and kept the petition for further hearing on Monday. In February this year, a magisterial court in Mansa of Gandhiangar district had convicted Nair of criminal defamation on the basis of a complaint filed by Adani Enterprises Limited. The court had sentenced him to one year’s simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 over a series of tweets he made between October 2020 and July 2021 and articles published on a website. Subsequently, Nair had challenged his conviction before a sessions court and the court granted him bail on the condition that he would remain present before the court during the hearing of the appeal. On September 3, Nair did not remain present personally before the sessions court and sought exemption from personal appearance through an application. However, the application was rejected and the sessions court issued a non-bailable warrant against Nair. On September 17, Nair appeared before the sessions court and moved an application for the cancellation of the NBW issued against him. However, the court rejected the application and ordered him to be taken into judicial custody. He was subsequently sent to jail. Through his lawyers Abhik Chimni and Ronith Joy, Nair has challenged the Gandhinagar sessions court’s order before the Gujarat High Court, seeking cancellation of the NBW stating that it was issued without first issuing a summons or a bailable warrant, which, he said, is not in consonance with a decision of the Supreme Court. ‘Urgent matter’ Nair’s lawyers submitted that it was an “urgent matter” since it was related to the personal liberty of an individual. After hearing the petition on Saturday, the court of Justice M K Thakker noted, “It is submitted that, without issuing any notice or summons, a Non-Bailable Warrant came to be issued directly against the petitioner. It is further submitted that, when the petitioner approached the learned Appellate Court seeking cancellation of the Non-Bailable Warrant by filing an application…the said application came to be rejected and the present petitioner was taken into custody.” “Considering the submissions advanced by learned advocates, let notice be issued, making it returnable on 21.09.2026,” the court said.