The Coimbatore serial blasts case was the first terrorist related case to be tried under the normal penal laws of the country after the Mumbai blasts of 1993 as it fell between two draconian anti-terrorist laws, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act( POTA).
Though the Narasimha Rao government allowed TADA to lapse in 1995, pending cases like the Mumbai serial blast case, were tried under that law. The Coimbatore blasts occurred before the enactment of the POTA in late 1990s by the Vajpayee government. This law too has since been scrapped. The accused in the Coimbatore case were tried under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Explosive Substances Act.
