The Supreme Court declined to hear a plea by the family of slain Maoist leader Basavaraju seeking his body for final rites. The bench said contempt was not the remedy and asked them to pursue other legal options.
New Delhi: On September 15, the Supreme Court refused to take up a plea filed by the family members of senior Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao, also known as Basavaraju, who was killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh in May 2025.
The petitioners had sought the handing over of his body to perform the last rites.
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Basavaraju, originally from Andhra Pradesh, was considered the top leader and the ideological head of the Naxal movement. He carried a bounty of Rs 1 crore in Chhattisgarh.
On May 25, he was killed along with 26 others in a major gun battle with security forces in Bastar. The authorities performed the last rites of Basavaraju and seven other Maoist cadres on May 26 in Narayanpur.
The case reached the Supreme Court after two of Rao’s family members challenged a May 29 order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The high court had dismissed their plea seeking contempt action against authorities for allegedly violating its earlier order dated May 24.
In that earlier order, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had disposed of two petitions, giving liberty to the petitioners to approach the concerned Chhattisgarh police authorities and ask for the custody of the bodies of Sajja Venkata Nageswara Rao alias Rajanna and Basavaraju.
During Monday’s hearing in the Supreme Court, counsel for Basavaraju’s kin argued that on May 24, the Advocate General of Chhattisgarh had appeared in the High Court and assured that the post-mortem of the bodies would be completed the same day and that after the autopsy, they would be handed over to the relatives.
The counsel pleaded before the apex court saying,
“Keeping aside contempt for a moment, I am praying to your lordships to entertain this matter, examine and lay down some guidelines,”
adding that around 25 people were killed in the same encounter.
The lawyer also pointed out that the bodies of those Maoists who were from Chhattisgarh were handed over to their families, while Basavaraju’s relatives from Andhra Pradesh were denied the same.
He further submitted,
“Today, even the ashes of the deceased have not been returned.”
At this stage, the bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta remarked,
“So many times the family members don’t even come forward to claim the dead body.”
The counsel countered that Basavaraju’s family had in fact approached the authorities on the very same day to claim the body. However, the court was not inclined to accept the contempt argument.
The bench observed,
“That would be an issue to be decided in appropriate proceedings, not in this contempt. The high court never issued any directions.”
The judges further told the lawyer,
“This contempt petition is not going to help you. Avail other remedies.”
The Supreme Court also held that the Andhra Pradesh High Court had rightly closed the contempt proceedings.
Eventually, after a detailed hearing, the counsel for the petitioners requested the court to allow them to withdraw the plea.
The court recorded this submission, noting that the counsel said the petition may be dismissed as withdrawn, with liberty to approach the appropriate forum.
Thus, the top court dismissed the plea, while keeping the door open for the family to pursue other legal remedies available under law.
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