Central Bureau of Investigation's petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the acquittals and seeking enhancement of punishment of some convicts in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts was on Thursday strongly objected on the grounds of delay by the agency in contesting the Terrorist and Disruptive Acts (Prevention) court's decision.
The agency has filed petitions in which it has challenged the acquittal of 23 accused by the Mumbai TADA court and has also sought enhancement of punishment of 25 persons who were held guilty for the serial blasts.
However, CBI has not filed an appeal against the absolvement of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt under the stringent TADA law.
Dutt, 50, was only held guilty and sentenced to six years for possessing illegal arms under the Arms Act, but CBI has not sought enhancement of his punishment to the maximum of 10 years imprisonment.
When the appeals came for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and Justices R M Lodha and B S Chauhan, the lawyers appearing for the acquitted and convicted persons contended that the CBI's petitions cannot be entertained as they were time-barred.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for some of the acquitted persons pointed out that CBI was late by 800 days in filing the appeals and there was no proper explanation for the delay.
Under TADA, appeals have to be filed within 30 days of the decision which could only be relaxed by the apex court.
Rohatgi also contended the appeals filed by the agency also suffers from severe defect as the copy of the judgement of the TADA court was not annexed.
However, the bench said it will go into the matter after three weeks as the counsel appearing for CBI sought adjournment on the ground that the Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, who is to argue the case, was not available.
CBI had chargesheeted 137 persons in connection with the serial blasts before the TADA court.
During the pendency of the case, some persons had died and some were discharged from the matter. The court had convicted 100 out of the 123 persons who stood for trial in connection with the blasts.
The TADA court had awarded death sentence to 12 accused. While life sentence was awarded to 20 accused, 14-year sentences to three, a 13-year jail term to one, 10-year sentences to 12, nine-year jail term to four, eight-year terms to four, seven-year terms to seven, six-year terms to 15, three-year sentences to five, and a two-year jail term to one convict.
