The Supreme Court has decided that the Bombay High Court’s recent judgment acquitting all accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blast case should not serve as a legal precedent for future cases. However, it clarified that the 12 individuals acquitted by the High Court will not be re-arrested at this stage.
On Thursday, the apex court agreed to consider the Maharashtra government’s plea challenging the High Court's verdict and issued formal notices to the acquitted individuals. While doing so, the bench imposed a limited stay on the High Court judgment, not in terms of its effect on the freed individuals, but specifically about its legal value.
“All the respondents have already been released, so the question of sending them back to jail does not arise,” the bench noted. “However, as far as the legal principle is concerned, we direct that the impugned judgment shall not be treated as a precedent in any other legal matter.”
This decision followed remarks made by the bench on Wednesday, when it described staying an acquittal as a measure to be taken only in the "rarest of rare" circumstances.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Maharashtra government, argued that the High Court’s ruling could negatively influence other cases being prosecuted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The Supreme Court acknowledged this concern while issuing its order.
The case stems from one of the worst terror attacks in Mumbai’s history. On the evening of July 11, 2006, seven bomb blasts occurred aboard suburban trains, killing 189 people and injuring 824. The coordinated explosions targeted peak-hour commuters, sending shockwaves across the nation.
In 2015, a special MCOCA court convicted 12 out of the 13 individuals accused in the case. Five of them were sentenced to death, while seven were given life imprisonment. One of the convicts sentenced to death later died of COVID-19 in 2021. One accused had already been acquitted by the trial court.
However, in a dramatic reversal on Monday, the Bombay High Court bench comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak set aside all convictions. They ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. The High Court's judgment strongly criticised the investigation by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), citing inconsistencies in witness testimonies and a failure to identify the specific type of explosives used in the blasts.
With the Supreme Court’s intervention, the acquittal stands—for now—but the legal debate over the handling and implications of the case is far from over.
