Criminals tend to 'hijack' system, expeditious trials needed in heinous offences: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday underscored the need to have dedicated NIA cases for expeditious trials of heinous offences as "hardened criminals try to hijack" the justice system and "force" courts to grant them bail.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi made the remarks after Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhatti said the Centre was holding consultation with the states to set up dedicated NIA courts.

"Soon a decision will be made in this regard," she said.

The bench told Bhati that time-bound completion of trials in heinous offences was in the interest of society and acted as a deterrent for hardened criminals.

"It's an opportunity for you to incentivise...sometimes these hardened criminals tend to hijack the entire justice system and not allow conclusion of the trial, as a result the court's are under compulsion to grant them bail on ground of delay," the bench said.

The ASG said states needed to be taken on board for the power to set up such courts rested with them.

Justice Kant said the Centre only needed to commit necessary budget allocations and consent of the high courts whereas the state governments' role could be dealt with later.

Bhati informed the bench about a proposal pending where Rs 1 crore would be allocated as non-recurring expense; Rs 60 lakh on recurring expenditure with states bearing expenses of land and building for such courts.

The bench subsequently posted the matter for October 14.

On July 18, the top court pulled up the Centre and the Maharashtra government for not creating courts for cases under special statutes concerned that courts will be forced to grant bail to accused.

It said if the authorities failed to establish courts with requisite infrastructure for conducting speedy trial under the NIA Act and other special statutes, the court would invariably be forced to release the accused on bail, as there is no effective mechanism to conclude the trial in a time bound manner.

It told the Maharashtra government that designating the existing courts as special courts amounted to "coercing" the high court to relabel them.

The top court said designating courts as special courts or entrusting exclusive trial under the NIA Act and other special statutes to the existing courts would be at the cost of undertrials and prisoners of old age, marginalised sections of society, languishing in jails.

The top court passed the order on the bail plea of Kailash Ramchandani, a Naxal sympathiser from Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, who was booked after 15 policemen of a quick response team of state police were killed in an IED blast in 2019.

The top court recalled its earlier order of March 17 which rejected his bail plea filed on the ground of inordinate delay in conclusion of trial and said if the Centre and the state government failed to establish special court for trial of the NIA cases, his plea for relief would be considered.

The Maharashtra government had earlier told the bench that a special court was designated in Mumbai for NIA cases with the high court's approval.

The statement irked the bench, which questioned the state government about cases the judge was already hearing when the court was designated as a special NIA court.