[7/11 Mumbai train blasts] Overburdened Bombay High Court struggles to find time to hear death sentence confirmation of 5 convicts

The hearing before the Bombay High Court on the confirmation of death sentence of 5 persons convicted in the gruesome 2006 Mumbai train blasts (popularly known as 7/11 Mumbai train blasts) was adjourned on Monday after the bench hearing the case was informed that the matter will take 5-6 months to complete the hearing..A Bench of Justices RD Dhanuka and MG Sewlikar assigned to hear the matter, therefore, said that it is already overburdened with work and asked the counsel to approach the Chief Justice for assignment of a dedicated bench to hear the case.“Special counsel says that the record is voluminous and will take time. Petitioner is asked to apply for a dedicated bench,” the order stated.Co-incidentally, this development came about on the 16th anniversary of the blasts which took place on July 11, 2006. On the fateful day, RDX blasts at 7 locations on the suburban rail network of Mumbai in a span of 11 minutes had claimed 189 lives and injured 800.After a trial that went on for 8 years, 12 out of the 13 accused were convicted. 5 amongst the 12 were given death sentence in 2015 by the Special Court under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA). The remaining accused were sentenced to life imprisonment.The State of Maharashtra approached the High Court seeking confirmation of the death sentence as required under the law.All accused also filed appeals challenging their respective sentencing.When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, Special public prosecutor and now Senior Advocate Raja Thakare informed the Bench that confirmation hearing would take at least 5-6 months for completion. He informed the court that there were 92 prosecution witnesses and over 50 defence witnesses. The evidence, he pointed out, ran over 169 volumes and the judgement went into 2,000 pages.Advocate Aditya Mehta for one of the accused pointed out that most accused had also filed appeals which were admitted and ready to be heard.The bench then deemed it fit to send the matter before a dedicated bench and asked the petitioner to make a request to that effect before the Chief Justice. To this Thakare responded that the confirmation matter had travelled across three benches before coming to Justice Dhanuka led bench.“Benches led by Justices Naresh Patil, BP Dharmadhikari and SS Jadhav all had heard the matters, but then they were all due to retire,” Thakare said.Both the counsel also informed the Court they had already approached for assignment of bench and thus today’s bench came to be assigned.“Yes, but we are already overloaded. I will simply place this matter for hearing in august for directions and final hearing,” Justice Dhanuka said.Interestingly, these remarks from the judge come on a day when the sixth judge of High Court is slated for retirement this year.On Saturday, the Advocates' Association of Bombay High Court at Aurangabad had recently written to Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju raising grievance about the non-clearance of names of advocates recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for elevation as judges to the Bombay High Court.The bar body said that the vacancies in the High Court was leading to mounting pendency.The Bombay Bar Association had also addressed a similar letter to the Union Minister on July 6. The same was not informed to media as they did not want it to be perceived as a publicity act.