The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Bombay High Court judgment that acquitted twelve accused persons in connection with the 2006 Mumbai train blasts. The apex court, however, clarified that the stay order will not affect the accused persons’ release from jail.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to all 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blast case, seeking their responses on an appeal filed by the Maharashtra government challenging their recent acquittal.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh also clarified that the Bombay High Court’s judgment, which had acquitted the accused, will not be treated as a legal precedent.

The development follows the July 22 verdict of a special High Court bench comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak, which overturned the convictions of all 12 individuals. The court had said the prosecution “utterly failed” to prove its case and that it was “hard to believe the accused committed the crime”.

All 12 Men Convicted By Special Court

In 2015, a special court had convicted the 12 men, sentencing five to death and seven to life imprisonment, for their alleged role in the serial blasts that struck Mumbai’s suburban railway network on July 11, 2006, killing over 180 people. One of the death row convicts died in 2021.

The High Court’s acquittal has raised questions over the investigation by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which had alleged that the accused were members of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and conspired with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives.