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Naser Bin Abu Bakr Yafai v. The State of Maharashtra

Criminal Appeal · 2021 INSC 649Decided 20 Oct 2021
Criminal Appeal No. 1165 of 2021
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Vikram Nath · Justice B.V. Nagarathna

Background

Naser Bin Abu Bakr Yafai and others were arrested in 2016 after the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Nanded, received information that he was in contact with ISIS members and was helping plan a bomb attack. While ATS Nanded was investigating and had already filed a chargesheet, the Central Government directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the case. The appellant argued that once that direction was issued, ATS Nanded had no power to continue investigating or to file the chargesheet before the local magistrate, and that only a Special Court under the NIA Act could have handled the matter. Both the trial court and the Bombay High Court rejected this challenge, leading to appeals before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Section 6(7) of the NIA Act obliges the local police to keep investigating until the NIA actually takes over the case records, not merely from the date of the Centre's direction, so ATS Nanded's continued investigation and its chargesheet (filed before the NIA had even received the file) were valid. The Court also held that the exclusive jurisdiction of an NIA Special Court attaches only once such a court is actually notified by the State; since no Special Court had been notified in Maharashtra at the relevant time, the magistrate and sessions court designated as remand/trial courts retained jurisdiction. The Court distinguished its earlier ruling in Bikramjit Singh (where a Special Court already existed) and dismissed both appeals, upholding the High Court's order transferring the case to the NIA's Special Court in Mumbai.

Lesson Learnt

Even after the Centre orders the NIA to take over a serious case, local police must keep investigating without any gap until the file is actually handed over, and a Special Court's exclusive power over such cases begins only once that court has actually been set up, not from the date of the transfer order alone.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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