Observing that it is an “important issue”, the Bombay High Court has appointed advocates Aabad Ponda and Sharan Jagtiani as amici curiae (friends of the court) in two cases seeking condonation for delay in filing appeals against bail rejections by NIA courts in Mumbai.
A condonation of delay plea is filed seeking court’s permission to file an appeal against a lower court’s order beyond the stipulated appeal period.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri Godse on Wednesday appointed Ponda and Jagtiani while hearing two pleas challenging the rejection of bail by a special NIA court in 2020. The bench said: “This is a very important issue.”
NIA Act
Under the NIA Act, an appeal can be filed against the NIA court order within 90 days. Here, the appeals are filed after 299 and 835 days respectively. Hence, the applicants sought condonation of delay.
Amici curiae were appointed as there have been different views on condoning the delay by various courts.
Delay in filing plea cases
One of the pleas was filed by dismissed Mumbai constable Vinayak Shinde, seeking bail in the Antilia bomb scare and murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran case of 2021. Shinde’s advocates, Mikhail Dey and Dinesh Tiwari, pointed out to the court that there was a delay of 299 days in filing the appeal.
The other plea was filed by Faizal Mirza who was arrested for allegedly conspiring with Pakistan-based terror organisations to carry out attacks in Mumbai, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh. He was initially arrested by the Maharashtra ATS but the case was transferred to the NIA in 2018. His Mirza advocate, Muskan Shaikh, said that the bail was rejected at the beginning of 2020, and his appeal was filed after 835 days.
