The Supreme Court said on Tuesday (September 1, 2026) that it would hear on October 14 a bail plea filed by advocate and activist Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case.
Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the Maharashtra government, urged the Bench to list the matter on a non-miscellaneous day to allow for a detailed hearing. The bail plea has since faced repeated delays, including recusals by Supreme Court judges. No reasons were assigned for the recusals.
He was subsequently arrested in February 2019 in connection with the Surjagarh arson case. On January 31, 2023, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court rejected his bail plea, observing that the allegations concerning his membership of the banned Maoist organisation appeared prima facie true. He subsequently approached the Supreme Court, which issued a notice on his petition on October 10, 2023. Most recently, Justice Shree Chandrashekhar recused himself from hearing the matter on July 21, 2026, marking the third such recusal by a Supreme Court judge in the preceding year.
