Mangaluru: On June 6 this year, Surendra Gadling, a prominent human rights lawyer from Nagpur, would have completed eight years in prison in the controversial Elgar Parishad case, without a trial and despite multiple rounds of bail applications. A division bench of the Bombay high court, comprising Justices Ajay Gadkari and Kamal Khata, finally granted him bail on Monday (May 4) on grounds of prolonged incarceration.The bench allowed Gadling’s bail plea, which had been pending since January 2024. The court invoked Article 14 of the Constitution (the right to equality) and granted bail on grounds of parity, noting that 14 of the 16 accused in the case have already been released. The 84-year-old Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in judicial custody in 2021 due to alleged medical negligence.Gadling, however, will remain in custody as he faces a separate case in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. In that 2016 arson case, which allegedly involved the torching of 76 iron ore transport vehicles, Gadling was arrested three years later, only in January 2019.While his co-accused were granted bail the same year in the arson case, his bail application has remained pending and is currently before the Supreme Court. On the apex court’s direction, the trial court in Gadchiroli has framed charges against him.During the bail hearing in the Elgar Parishad case before the high court, additional solicitor general Anil Singh, assisted by special public prosecutor Chintan Shah for the National Investigation Agency, opposed the plea citing Gadling’s “past antecedents” in the Gadchiroli case.Gadling’s counsel, Sudeep Pasbola, emphasised the inordinate delay in trial and the fact that most co-accused in the Elgar Parishad matter have already been released.Among those released on bail are Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Shoma Sen, Gautam Navlakha, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor. Accused Jyoti Jagtap is out on interim bail, while Mahesh Raut was granted medical bail by the Supreme Court.