SC dismissed plea against HC order in 2008 blast case

Mumbai: The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a petition, challenging a Bombay high court order which held that the appeals of various accused including Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and Pragya Singh Thakur against framing of charges in the 2008 Malegaon blast case were “maintainable”.

The HC on March 5 had rejected the statutory plea of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that it could not hear the appeals of the accused under section 21 (1) of the NIA Act as an order of framing of charges was an interlocutory or interim order and not a final one. The court had rejected the NIA’s plea that the special court’s order of framing of charges against Lt. Col. Purohit and others was an “interlocutory” one and hence, the appeals of the accused under the specific provision were not maintainable before the high court.

The HC, in its order, had observed, “We are of the view that the preliminary objection raised by the counsel for NIA has no merit as the order impugned... cannot be termed as an interlocutory order within the meaning of sub-section (1) of section 21 of the NIA Act.” The court had termed the appeals of Lt. Col. Purohit, Ms Thakur, and Sameer Sharad Kulkarni against framing of charges as maintainable and said that it could hear them under provision.

A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Ashok Bhushan took note of the submissions of senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for Nisar Ahmed Sayed Bilal, who is an intervener in the case, that the high court order needed to be set aside. “Having heard the counsel for the petitioner and on perusing the relevant material, we are not inclined to interfere. The special leave petitions are accordingly dismissed,” the bench said.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in northern Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.