The state government filed an appeal in the high court seeking confirmation of the death penalty. A death sentence awarded by the trial court has to be confirmed by the high court. The convicts too filed appeals challenging their conviction and sentences.
The court indicated that it would not grant any adjournments whatsoever to either of the parties in the day-to-day hearing of the confirmation of the death sentence and cross-appeals challenging convictions in the case.
The Bombay High Court today pulled up the Maharashtra government for its apparent lack of seriousness in conducting the appeals and confirmation cases related to the Mumbai bomb blasts that took place on July 7, 2006.
After an over eight-year trial, a special court under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) in October 2015 awarded death penalty to five of the convicts and life terms to seven others.
The plea was filed by Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui who claims that he was falsely implicated in the blasts. He had filed an RTI application, in which he also urged the NIA to consider starting a fresh probe.