The Supreme Court stayed last week two Gauhati High Court order releasing on bail three accused allegedly involved in a bomb explosion at Gauhati Railway Station last July. The vacation Judge ordered interim stay of the April 12 and May 11, 1984 order of the High Court and directed that the accused remain in custody until final orders of the Court. The cases went up to the Supreme Court on appeal by the Assam Government, but what must have lent additional weight to the appeal and the Supreme Court’s favourable response to it is that as many s eleven innocent lives were lost in this particular tragedy which, therefore, need a deeper judicial probe if it can also help finding a general guide-line in such cases.
Considering the threat which such misconceived and misdirected urge of terrorist violence hold to the peace and tranquility of a whole community in a given area, it is important and urgent that such cases are given even more importance than are normally deserving in their disposal in law courts. Apart from interpretation of the letter of law, a general guide-line about such disposal in areas where these incident seem to have assumed an endemic character would seem called for during the final judicial proceedings in the instant cases. The large-scale release on bail of accused arrested is recalled in this context. Also relevant are the earlier comments in the Press on large number of such cases remaining unheard for years in Manipur in particular.