India News | 44 NIA Cases Pending in Designated Courts in Delhi: HC Told
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Altogether 44 cases registered by the NIA are pending before the designated special courts in the national capital, the Delhi High Court has been informed.
New Delhi, Oct 20 (PTI) Altogether 44 cases registered by the NIA are pending before the designated special courts in the national capital, the Delhi High Court has been informed.
The administrative side of the high court has filed a status report before Justice Jasmeet Singh stating NIA cases at Patiala House Court here are being heard by two judges—Principal District and Sessions Judge and an Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ).
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The submission was made pursuant to a high court order by which it had sought a report from the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Patiala House, regarding the pendency of NIA cases and their current status.
“As on July 31, 2022, 4 NIA cases are pending before the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Patiala House and 39 NIA trial cases are pending before the ASJ-03. There is one appeal pending before ASJ-03,” the status report filed through advocate Gaurav Agrawal said.
The report was filed in the context of a petition by an accused in a case lodged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) seeking day-to-day hearing in his case pending before a special NIA court here.
The high court administration had earlier submitted it has resolved to withdraw all other cases being heard by the two special designated NIA courts and assign them to three newly created courts of ASJs in view of the pendency.
In December last year, the high court had said it was of paramount importance that cases under anti-terror law UAPA are tried expeditiously and that it was for the high court authorities to consider the issue and make appropriate recommendations for establishing exclusive courts for trial.
The court had observed since the cases under UAPA involved serious offences and foreign nationals, it was not easy for those in custody to secure bail and the trials lasted long.
In the petition filed through lawyer Kartik Murukutla, petitioner Manzar Imam has sought a direction to ensure that the special courts under the Act deal exclusively with NIA-investigated scheduled offences. He claimed the accused in NIA cases were “languishing for years on end”, in violation of their fundamental right to speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution.
He said he was in jail for eight years and there was a delay in the trial as there were only two designated courts which were also hearing non-NIA cases including bail matters, other IPC offences, and MCOCA matters.
The petitioner was arrested in August 2013 in a case registered by the National Investigation Agency alleging members of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, in association with sleeper cells based in the country and others, were conspiring to commit terrorist acts and preparing to target important places in India.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)