New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the operation of a Delhi High Court judgment granting remission and directing the release of Md. Rashid Khan, a life convict in the 1993 Bowbazar bomb blast case in which 70 people were killed. A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the interim order after hearing Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju, who urged the apex court to stay the Delhi High Court's judgment.

During the hearing, ASG Raju submitted that the 1993 Bowbazar blast was a grave terrorist incident in which around 70 people lost their lives, more than 100 were injured, and two buildings collapsed due to the explosion caused by bombs. Taking note of the submissions, the Justice Mishra-led Bench issued notice on the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the State of West Bengal and ordered: “In the meantime, the impugned order shall remain stayed.”

The West Bengal government had earlier approached the Supreme Court seeking urgent intervention against the Delhi High Court's verdict granting remission to Rashid Khan, who was convicted under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Explosive Substances Act and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) in connection with the Bowbazar blast case. The matter was mentioned before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant last week, when counsel for the state government sought an urgent hearing.

 The CJI, who is the Master of the Roster, had then assured that the plea would be considered for early listing. In its June 5 judgment, the Delhi High Court had held that Khan, who has spent more than 33 years in prison, was entitled to premature release based on the reformative theory of punishment and his conduct during incarceration. Allowing Khan's writ petition, a single-judge Bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna observed that keeping him in prison after over three decades of incarceration “may not be fruitful in any manner” and said that his prison record and reports “clearly indicate a reformed person, entitled to a reformative approach”.

The judgment recorded that Khan's conduct in jail was rated as “very, very good”, that he had returned to custody on time after parole on multiple occasions, and that there was a “very low likelihood of the recurrence of offence” considering his age and medical condition. Referring to the reformative approach adopted in Indian criminal jurisprudence, the Delhi High Court said: "If the gravity of the offence was an important criterion for considering the remission policy, then it would have been so stated as a ground in the scheme of remission."

It also took note of the fact that co-convict Pannalal Jaysoara had earlier been granted remission and observed that while parity cannot be claimed as a matter of right, the gravity of the offence alone could not be used to deny remission if other criteria were satisfied. Khan was convicted in the 1993 Bowbazar blast case and has remained in custody since March 1993.

The State Sentence Review Board had initially recommended his premature release in 2015, but the proposal was later revisited amid legal questions concerning remission powers in cases involving TADA convicts. The West Bengal government has consistently opposed his release, contending that Khan was the mastermind of the blast, that the offence had a profound societal impact, and that police authorities had raised objections to his premature release.

--IANS