Journalist Ravi Nair was granted regular bail by a sessions court in Gandhinagar on Thursday (September 24), days after he was taken into custody in a criminal defamation case filed by Adani Enterprises over his reporting and social media posts concerning the Adani Group. The bail was granted while his appeal against his conviction remains pending.

The development came on the same day that Nair approached the Supreme Court seeking his release from custody, challenging the Gujarat High Court’s refusal to grant him interim relief. The Supreme Court plea followed the High Court’s decision on Wednesday to reserve its order on his challenge to the non-bailable warrant issued against him, Bar and Bench reported.

Nair had been in judicial custody since September 17 after the Gandhinagar sessions court issued a non-bailable warrant over his alleged failure to appear before the court during the proceedings. The Gujarat High Court, while hearing his challenge to the warrant, declined interim relief and said it would pronounce its order on September 30.

The case dates back to a criminal defamation complaint filed by Adani Enterprises on September 3, 2021. The company alleged that Nair had published and disseminated a series of tweets containing false and defamatory statements intended to damage the reputation of AEL and the Adani Group.

On February 10, 2026, the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Mansa convicted Nair in the case and sentenced him to one year of simple imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 5,000. Nair subsequently appealed against the conviction before the sessions court at Gandhinagar.

On March 9, the appellate court suspended his sentence and granted him bail during the pendency of the appeal, subject to conditions including his presence during the proceedings. Nair’s subsequent incarceration arose after he failed to appear before the court on September 3 and his request for exemption from personal appearance was rejected.

According to Nair’s petition, he had been appearing in the proceedings but could not attend the September 3 hearing because of poor health and the need to travel from his native Kerala.

His lawyers told The Indian Express that he had sought exemption for that hearing. When he appeared before the court on September 17, however, the court declined to cancel the non-bailable warrant and ordered his custody.

Nair’s lawyers have also challenged the manner in which the warrant was issued. They have argued that the court should not have proceeded directly to a non-bailable warrant without first issuing a summons or bailable warrant.

His Supreme Court plea also invokes earlier judicial guidelines concerning the circumstances in which non-bailable warrants should be issued.

In the defamation proceedings, Nair’s lawyers had maintained that the material at issue was published in good faith and was based on research and articles already available in the public domain.

AltNews had reported that his lawyers had “argued that the tweets were in good faith as they were based on research done from articles already available in the public domain. They argued that since the accused didn’t come up with the accusations on his own, and he merely shared those links, and as the authors of the mentioned articles haven’t been implicated in the trial, so Ravi Nair should also be acquitted from the charges.”

Nair’s arrest had drawn criticism from human rights organisations, press bodies and journalists. Amnesty International issued a statement saying Nair’s arrest “poses serious questions around people’s freedom of expression and fair trial rights in the country”.

With the sessions court now granting regular bail, Nair’s immediate custody has been addressed, while his challenge before the Gujarat High Court against the non-bailable warrant is still pending.

The High Court is scheduled to pronounce its order on September 30.