Supreme Court: In a batch of petitions raising issues concerning dismissal of criminal appeals in Ajmer Sharif bomb blast case on the ground of delay and the slow progress of trial despite Court’s earlier directions, a Division Bench of M.M. Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma, JJ., directed the Rajasthan High Court to decide the impugned criminal appeals on merits notwithstanding delay and expedite the trial with day-to-day hearing.
In the instant matter, the criminal proceedings arose out of the terrorist bomb blast that took place on 11-10-2007 at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, shortly after iftar during evening prayers in the month of Ramadan. The explosion resulted in the death of three persons and injuries to several devotees. Following investigation and trial, the NIA Special Court at Jaipur in 2017, convicted two accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment, while acquitting seven other accused.
The complainant and victim’s side, preferred and appeal before the Rajasthan High Court challenging the acquittal of the seven accused as well as seeking enhancement of punishment for the convicted persons.
However, the High Court dismissed the appeal on a technical ground and held that the delay beyond 90 days could not be condoned in view of Section 21(5) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, even though the appeal had remained pending for nearly five years.
Aggrieved by the impugned order rejecting the complainant-petitioner, approached the Supreme Court contending that a rigid and inflexible bar on condonation of delay in NIA appeals violated Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, impaired the right to appeal, and defeated access to justice, particularly for victims of terror-related offences.
The Court took serious note of the grievance that the trial had not progressed despite its earlier directions. Accordingly, the Court directed the trial court to expedite the hearing and, if possible, to conduct day-to-day hearings, particularly keeping in view that the accused is languishing under incarceration for more than 8 and half years.
The Court further directed the trial court to complete the examination of the protected witnesses, and to submit a report before this Court on or before 15-03-2026 with respect to the progress made in the trial. The Court directed to list all the matters on 24-03-2026
[Sushila Devi v. State of Rajasthan, 2025 SCC OnLine SC 2918, Decided on 11-12-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
Mr. R. Basant, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Abhay Mahadeo Thipsay, Sr. Adv.; Mrs. Nitya Ramakrishnan, Sr. Adv.; Ms. Maulshree Pathak, AOR; Mr. Raunak Arora; Mr. Akash Rajeev; Ms. Sowjhanya Shankaran; Mr. Siddharth Satija; Mr. M. Huzaifa; Ms. Anuka Bachawat; Mr. Akash Sachan; Ms. Charu Sinha; Ms. Sylona Mohapatra, AOR; Mr. Prasanna S., AOR; Mrs. Rupali Samuel; Ms. Stuti Rai; Ms. Injila Muslim Zaidi; Ms. Apoorva Singh; Mr. Prasanna B.; Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR; Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, AOR; Mr. Rohan Dewan; Ms. Harsha Tripathi; Mr. Vishwaditya Sharma; Ms. Kanishka Singh; Mr. Subornadeep Bhattacharjee; Mrs. Lakshmi Rao; Mr. K. Shiva; Ms. Aakriti Priya; Ms. Garima Jain and Ms. Srishti Govil, Counsel for the Petitioners
Mr. S. V. Raju, Additional Solicitor General; Mr. Raja Thakare, Additional Solicitor General; Mr. Suryaprakash V. Raju, Additional Solicitor General; Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India (NP); Mr. Gaurang Bhushan; Mr. Rajat Nair; Mr. Annam Venkatesh; Mr. Samrat Goswami; Mr. Akshay Amritanshu; Mr. Rajan Kumar Chourasia; Ms. Rajeshwari Shankar; Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR; Mr. G. Siddi Ramulu; Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, AAG; Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR; Mr. Chand Qureshi, AOR; Mr. Aarif Ali; Mr. Pankaj Tiwari; Mr. Mujahid Ahmad; Mr. Rama Kant Sharma; Mr. Manoj Kumar Goyal; Mr. Mohd. Shahzad Ansari; Mrs. Shikha Bhargava; Mr. Dhirendra Kumar Verma; Mr. Vijay Kumar; Mr. Sundeep Pandhi; Mr. Rohit Khare; Ms. Kanu Agrawal; Mr. Amit Sharma-II; Mr. Mayank Pandey; Mr. Aaditya Dixit; Mr. Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra; Mr. Karunesh Kumar Shukla; Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh; Mr. Animesh Upadhyay; Mr. Abhinav Mishra; Mr. Chitvan Singhal; Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi; Mr. Raman Yadav; Mr. Abhishek Kumar Pandey; Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal; Mr. Aman Mehta; Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR and Ms. Tasmiya Taleha, Counsel for the Respondents
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