"Mockery of justice": Supreme Court rebukes NIA for 4-year delay in trial, grants bail

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rebuked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in strong words for the delaying the trial in a counterfeit currency case resulting in the accused languishing in jail for four years without trial. (Javed Gulam Nabi Shaikh v State of Maharashtra and anr).A Division Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan emphasised that regardless of the seriousness of a crime, an accused has a right to speedy trial under article 21 of the Indian Constitution."You are the NIA. Please do not make a mockery of justice. It is 4 years and the trial has not commenced. This is not done. Whatever offence the accused has committed, he has the right to speedy trial. Do not say a word now. Not a word," the Court remarked.The Court, therefore, granted bail to the accused."Article 21 of the Constitution applies irrespective of the nature of the crime ... The over-arching postulate of criminal jurisprudence that an accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty cannot be brushed aside lightly, howsoever stringent the penal law may be. We are convinced that the manner in which the prosecuting agency as well as the Court have proceeded, the right of the accused to have a speedy trial could be said to have been infringed thereby violating Article 21 of the Constitution," the Court stated in its order..The Court was hearing an appeal by the accused against a February 2024 Bombay High Court order that refused to grant bail to the accused.The accused was apprehended by Mumbai Police in 2020 based on secret documents, which led to the recovery of counterfeit currency notes allegedly from Pakistan. The NIA later took over the investigation, revealing that the appellant had visited Dubai in February 2020 and had received the counterfeit currency there..At the outset, the Court disapproved of the delay in trial and urged the NIA to not 'make a mockery of justice' given the right of the accused to a speedy trial.It refused to adjourn the matter as sought the the NIA and the Maharashtra government..Further, the Court noted that two co-accused had already been arrested and granted bail, with one bail order currently under challenge before the Supreme Court.The Court noted that the accused was in jail as an undertrial for four years, the trial court had not framed charges and that the prosecution was to examine 80 witnesses. Pertinently, it stressed that criminals are not born out, but made. "The human potential in everyone is good and so, never write off any criminal as beyond redemption. This humanist fundamental is often missed when dealing with delinquents, juvenile and adult. Indeed, every saint has a past and every sinner a future. When a crime is committed, a variety of factors is responsible for making the offender commit the crime. Those factors may be social and economic, may be, the result of value erosion or parental neglect; may be, because of the stress of circumstances, or the manifestation of temptations in a milieu of affluence contrasted with indigence or other privations."If the state, any prosecuting agency, or the court cannot provide for or protect an accused's right to speedy trial, it should not oppose bail, it was made clear..For these reasons, the Court set aside the Bombay High Court order and granted bail to the accused, subject to conditions set by the trial court. The Court also directed the accused to mark his appearance at NIA's Bombay office every 15 days. .Advocates Sherali S Khan, Sushant Kumar Yadav, and Ankur Yadav appeared for the accused, one Javed Shaikh.Advocates Abhikalp Pratap Singh, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Bharat Bagla, Aagam Kaur, Aditya Krishna, Preet S Phanse, Yamini Singh, Adarsh Dubey, and Kartikey appeared for the State of Maharashtra.Advocates Shubhendu Anand, Siddharth Sinha, Madhav Sinhal, Amit Sharma B, and Arvind Kumar Sharma appeared for the NIA..[Read order]