Supreme Court stays Bombay HC judgment on 7/11 blasts; no stay on release of acquitted persons

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Bombay High Court verdict in the Mumbai train blasts case of July 11, 2006 to the limited extent that it will not be treated as a precedent in other cases.

Pertinently, the Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh refused to stay the release of the eleven accused persons who were acquitted by the High Court.

The Court said that the judgment of the High Court will not be treated as a precedent and there will be a stay to that limited extent.

"All respondents released and thus no question to bring them back to prison. However, on the question of law we will say that impugned judgment is not treated as precedent in any other cases. Therefore to that extent let there be stay on the impugned judgment," the Court said.

This was after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State of Maharashtra, said that the judgment could affect other trials under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Therefore, he sought a stay on the verdict though he did not press for a stay on the release of the acquitted persons.

"So far as stay is concerned, I am not on liberty (of the accused). There are some findings which will affect all our MCOCA trials. The judgment can be stayed and release be not hampered," Mehta said.

The Court agreed and granted limited stay on the judgment as requested. It also proceeded to issue notice to the accused

"We will issue notice. Let the parties come. We will hear them and decide," the Court said.

Nine of the acquitted persons have already been released from prison. Two of them, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh and Naveed Hussain have not been released since there are other pending cases against them.

One of the accused had passed away in 2021.

The case pertains to the serial bomb blasts that occurred on July 11, 2006, in which seven bombs exploded in suburban trains on Mumbai’s Western Railway line, killing 187 people and injuring more than 800.

Following a prolonged trial under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), the special court in October 2015 sentenced five of the accused to death and seven to life imprisonment.

The five who got death penalty were Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan and Asif Khan. All were held guilty of planting the bombs.

Ansari died in 2021 due to COVID-19 while lodged in a Nagpur prison.

The seven accused sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court were Tanveer Ahmed Ansari, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh and Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Shaikh.

The convicts then filed appeals against their convictions and sentences. In accordance with Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the trial court also made a reference to the High Court for confirmation of the death sentences.

The High Court, however, ended up acquitting all eleven accused and also castigated the prosecution.

The Bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said that "the prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case beyond reasonable doubts".

The High Court described the investigation and trial process as fraught with serious irregularities and observed that the prosecution’s case gave the public a “misleading sense of resolution” while “the true threat remains at large.”

"Punishing the actual perpetrator of a crime is a concrete and essential step toward curbing criminal activities, upholding the rule of law, and ensuring the safety and security of citizens. But creating a false appearance of having solved a case by presenting that the accused have been brought to justice gives a misleading sense of resolution. This deceptive closure undermines public trust and falsely reassures society, while in reality, the true threat remains at large," the High Court said.

The High Court found the statements of nearly all prosecution witnesses unreliable. According to the Court, there was no reason for the taxi drivers or people in the train to remember the accused after almost 100 days of the blast.

It added that the recovery of evidence such as bombs, guns, maps etc was immaterial and not important to the case, as the prosecution failed to identify the type of the bomb used for the blasts.

The Maharashtra government then moved the Supreme Court in appeal.