The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the use of the Bombay High Court’s acquittal of all 12 convicts in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case as judicial precedent in any pending trials under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). However, the court clarified that the released men do not have to surrender.
A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh passed the interim order after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Maharashtra government, urged the court to prevent the High Court judgment from influencing other MCOCA cases.
Mehta stressed that the state was not seeking to return the acquitted men to jail but was concerned about the legal findings in the verdict that could adversely affect ongoing MCOCA trials. “I am not seeking stay to bring them back to jail. That is not the intention,” he told the court.
Accepting the state’s concerns, the Supreme Court said, “Taking note of the submission made by the Solicitor General on the question of law, we are inclined to hold that the impugned judgment shall not be treated as a precedent in any other pending trials. Therefore, to that extent, we stay the impugned judgment.”
The court also issued notice to the acquitted men in the state’s appeal challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision.
Earlier, the Bombay High Court had set aside the Special MCOCA Court’s 2015 judgment that sentenced five of the accused to death and the remaining seven to life imprisonment. The High Court found that the prosecution had “utterly failed” to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The Supreme Court also noted during the hearing that some of the actual perpetrators may have been Pakistani nationals who left India and were never arrested.
The 7/11 Mumbai train blasts were one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in India. On July 11, 2006, seven bombs exploded within minutes in first-class coaches of suburban trains between 6:23 p.m. and 6:29 p.m., killing 187 people and injuring over 800 others.
