By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the trial in three separate cases, including the one re¬lated to 7/11 serial blasts on Mumbai suburban trains, fil¬ed under the Maharashtra Co¬ntrol of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA), till further orders.
Besides the 2006 Mumbai train bombings case, the court also stayed proceedings in the Special MCOCA Court pertaining to four bomb explo¬sions that took place in Male¬gaon on 8th September 2006. The explosions had rocked the compound of Hamidiya Masjid and Baba Qabrastan and nearby Mushawarat Chowk in Malegaon. It also stayed the trial in another case relating to seizure of arms in Aurangabad on 9th May 2005. The directives were issued as a Bench comprising Justices B.N. Agarwal and G.S. Singhvi agreed to examine the consti¬tutional validity of a specific part of Section 2(1) (e) of MCOCA, 1999 that refers to “insurgency”.
The issue was raised by Zameer Ahmed Lat¬ifur Rahman, one of the 13 ac¬cused in the suburban train blasts case. Rehman, along with other accused, had filed a peti¬tion before the Bombay High Court, questioning the legality of the latter part of Section 2(1) (e) (Organized Crime) of MCOCA. However, the High Court had dismissed their peti¬tions on 19th July 2007, and they moved to the apex court. The MCOCA; promulgated on 24th February 1999, stipu¬lates stringent punishment to a person or a gang operating as a syndicate.
Appearing for the accused, senior advocates Sushil Kumar Jain, Shanti Bhushan and Ra¬jeev Dhawan submitted that Maharashtra state did not have the legislative compe¬tence to enact the latter part of the said section, which deals with insurgency. Terming it as a case of “colourable legislation”, they claimed that all anti-in¬surgency laws fall under List I, Entry I or in any event, under Entry 97. For List 111, Parliament alone is competent to enact laws falling under it. Thus, the enactment of MCOCA by the state government is a serious and substantial aversion mak¬ing inroads into the legislative powers of Union, they claimed.