New Delhi: The Supreme Court has adjourned to July 19 the hearing of Varavara Rao’s bail plea on the request of the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.Eighty-three-year-old Rao, incarcerated in the Elgar Parishad case, has moved the apex court against the Bombay high court’s refusal to give him bail on medical grounds.The SG requested for adjournment and agreed that the three-month interim protection from surrender granted by the Bombay high court to Rao, which expires today, July 12, be extended, LiveLaw has reported.Rao’s counsel, senior advocate Anand Grover, did not object to it.“The interim protection enjoyed by the petitioner will enure to his benefit till further orders,” the bench of Justices U.U. Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia said.Rao, who suffers from serious health conditions, has filed multiple pleas requesting medical care and bail on this ground.Jailed since August 2018 in the Elgar Parishad case – earlier probed by the Pune police and then handed over to the NIA – Rao was granted temporary bail by the Bombay high court on medical grounds in February 2021. He was released from jail on March 6, 2021.Also read: Not Just NIA, Maharashtra Govt Too Is Responsible for Varavara Rao’s Failing HealthThe case has been criticised internationally as a witch-hunt against activists, scholars and lawyers who are critics of the establishment and assist marginalised communities. Of the 16 arrested in the case, Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy passed away in custody last year. His associates allege that serious medical negligence led to his death.The case is yet to go to trial.Rao, who has early signs of Parkinson’s disease according to his counsel, had submitted to the apex court that “any further incarceration would ring the death knell for him as advancing age and deteriorating health are a fatal combination.”He also submitted that through multiple extensions of his temporary bail, his health deteriorated and he had developed an umbilical hernia for which he had to undergo surgery.He also needs to be operated for cataract in both his eyes, which he has not undertaken as the cost in Mumbai is prohibitive. The Bombay high court had turned down his request to stay in Hyderabad instead of Mumbai, while out on bail.Rao’s petition also said that he has been suffering from increasing neurological symptoms, i.e., slowness of movement, hand tremors, stooping posture, amongst other symptoms.