Overview
- Chief justices of all High Courts must audit pendency in UAPA‑style cases, ensure adequate special or sessions courts, fill judicial and prosecutor gaps, prioritise the oldest matters, and require day‑to‑day hearings with periodic progress reports.
- State Legal Services Authorities were directed to inform every undertrial of the right to counsel and to assign legal‑aid lawyers expeditiously when chosen.
- The Court held that Section 436‑A CrPC does not apply to offences carrying the possibility of death, setting aside High Court bail reasoning that relied on that provision.
- In the 2010 Jnaneswari Express case, the Court declined to cancel bail already granted, citing roughly 12 years of pre‑release custody, a “glacial” trial pace, and no alleged misuse of liberty, with 28 witnesses still to be examined.
- Citing NCRB’s 2023 data showing 3,949 UAPA cases pending trial and 4,794 pending investigation, the Court stressed that individual liberty in grave terror matters may yield to paramount concerns of national interest, sovereignty and integrity.