The State’s assurance came with a deadline attached. The ninety-day period from the first arrest, within which a chargesheet must be filed to prevent the accused from claiming default bail, expires on September 25. The Solicitor General told the Supreme Court that the chargesheet would be filed within two days. The Court, hearing petitions that seek an independent investigation into the alleged theft of temple donations, perused the status report of the Special Investigation Team.
New Delhi: The State of Uttar Pradesh has informed the Supreme Court that the chargesheet in the Ayodhya Ram temple donation case will be filed within two days, in a matter concerning the alleged theft of donations made to the temple [Narendra Kumar Goswami v. Union of India and connected matters].
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta made the statement before a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, which was hearing a batch of petitions seeking an independent investigation into the alleged scam.
The deadline
The Solicitor General submitted that the period of ninety days from the date of the first arrest would be over on September 25, and that, if the chargesheet were not filed before then, the accused would become entitled to default bail. “Within 2 days we will be filing,” he told the Bench. He also informed the Court that the Special Investigation Team had submitted a status report on the investigation, which the Bench perused.
Default bail, also called statutory bail, is the right of an accused to be released on bail if the investigating agency fails to file the chargesheet within the period prescribed by law, ninety days for offences carrying the higher punishments, and it accrues irrespective of the merits of the case once the period lapses.
The petitions
In July, the Court had issued notice to the Union, the State of Uttar Pradesh and the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on the petitions. The petitioners, who include a Member of Parliament, a lawyer, another individual and an organisation, seek an independent investigation into the alleged theft of donations, and a comprehensive audit of the finances of the temple trust. Last month, the Court had permitted the petitioners and other public-spirited citizens to submit their suggestions on the probe to the office of the Solicitor General.
The allegations in the matter are yet to be tested, and the persons arrested are entitled to the presumption of innocence; the proceedings before the Supreme Court concern the manner and independence of the investigation, and, at this stage, the timeline for filing the chargesheet.
Why it matters
The immediate significance of the hearing is the chargesheet deadline. The right to default bail is a valuable statutory protection against indefinite detention during investigation, and it crystallises automatically if the chargesheet is not filed in time; the State’s assurance that it will be filed within two days is therefore directed at meeting the September 25 cut-off and foreclosing that entitlement. Whether the chargesheet is in fact filed within the period will be a matter of record.
The larger matter before the Court, the demand for an independent investigation and an audit of the temple trust’s finances, remains at an early stage. The Court is considering the petitioners’ concerns and has, so far, taken steps to gather suggestions on the probe rather than reaching any conclusion on its adequacy. Nothing has been decided on the merits of the allegations, which are for the investigation and any trial to determine.
Cases: Narendra Kumar Goswami v. Union of India [WP(C) 790/2026]; Ajay Kumar Rai v. Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Theerth Kshetra Trust [WP(Crl) 241/2026]; Sudhakar Singh v. Union of India [WP(Crl) 256/2026]; Hindu Dharma Parishad v. Union of India [WP(C) 827/2026]
Bench: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, Supreme Court of India
Appearing: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the State
Status: State to file chargesheet within two days, before the September 25 default-bail deadline; SIT status report perused. Petitions seeking an independent probe and audit pending; allegations untested.