The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday adjourned the hearing of the bail plea of former professor and activist Sudha Bharadwaj by three days, as the report on her health condition by the jail superintendent was not legible. The court directed the state to decipher the report and submit it in typed format on Wednesday, after which it will take up the hearing the next day.

A division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice PV Tavade, while hearing the bail application of Bharadwaj through advocate Ragini Ahuja, was informed that the plea in the HC was pending since June 11, and as Bharadwaj is not in good health, the hearing of her bail application should be expedited.

Complying with an earlier direction of the court, the state, through public prosecutor Deepak Thakare, submitted a report by the superintendent of the Byculla women’s jail on Bharadwaj’s health and the condition in the jails.

After being unable to read the report, the bench directed the state to provide a legible copy, preferably in a typed form, for which Thakare sought a two-day time to comply. The court Thakare the two-day period and also directed the state to provide the copy to Bharadwaj’s advocates, as they did not receive the copy.

In an earlier hearing, the NIA, which took over the investigations from Pune Police earlier this year, opposed Bharadwaj’s bail application, stating that she was suffering from the ailments mentioned in the application from the past 20 years, and was being provided the prescribed medication regularly. NIA submitted that Bharadwaj was using the directions of the Supreme Court to decongest jails to get bail, even though the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) did not have any provision for bail.

Bharadwaj, along with 10 other activists, were arrested and kept behind bars for their alleged role in the Elgar Parishad conclave on December 31, 2017, which led to the Bhima Koregaon violence the next day, as well as and their alleged link with the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit.