Supreme Court Today (July 18) criticized delay in setting up special NIA courts, warning bail may become the only option. Government gets final chance to act or face legal consequences.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court strongly criticised the government for not setting up enough special courts to hear terror-related cases under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act.
The Court said that because of this failure, trials are being delayed for a long time, and as a result, accused people might have to be given bail even in serious cases like terrorism.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi expressed deep concern over this issue.
They clearly stated:
“If the authorities fail to establish special courts with requisite infrastructure to conduct time bound trials, the courts would invariably be without any option but to release undertrials on bail as how long can such suspects be kept behind bars when there is no mechanism for speedy trial and conclude the same in time bound manner.”
The case being heard was a bail plea filed by a person named Kailash Ramachandani. Earlier, on May 23, the Supreme Court had asked the government to reply to the petition and explain what steps they were taking.
In its May 23 order, the Court had mentioned that trials in such serious matters should ideally be held on a day-to-day basis without delay. It also said that setting up additional courts and providing necessary support is the responsibility of the executive (government), and this should be done in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court, after collecting complete data about how many such cases are still pending in the state.
Because of this, the Court gave time to the government lawyers to get clear instructions and report on whether special courts can be set up to finish trials faster, especially for offences under laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999.
When the case came up for hearing again on Friday, the Court noted that an Under Secretary of the NIA had filed an affidavit. However, the judges were not satisfied with the progress.
They observed that no proper or visible steps had been taken by the government to speed up trials by establishing exclusive special courts for NIA-related cases.
The Bench strongly remarked:
“You want prosecution under special acts also and yet no speedy trial for the accused.”
The judges made it absolutely clear that just giving an existing court the name of a ‘special court’ is not enough to fulfill the legal requirements.
They said:
“It goes without saying that it would require creation of posts in superior judicial services cadre and also post of requisite ministerial staff. The bail infrastructure would need suitable courtrooms. None of those steps taken. Contrary, an impression is being created that designation of an existing court as a special court as under section 11 of NIA Act 2008 would be following our earlier order. This is rejected.”
The Court gave one final chance to both the Central Government and the State of Maharashtra to respond and take action. They warned that if exclusive special courts are still not created, then the Court will have no option but to consider granting bail to the accused.
The Bench concluded by saying:
“We had earlier stated that if exclusive special courts are not set up then prayer of petitioner to be released on bail shall be conducted on merits. List after 4 weeks. Last opportunity to Union of India and respondent-state.”
CASE TITLE:
KAILASH RAMCHANDANI v. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA.
SLP(Crl) No. 4276/2025.
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