Supreme Court Expresses Shock Over 649 Criminal Cases in Maharashtra Pending Without Framing of Charges.


07 October 2025 Special Leave Petition >> Criminal Law  

India's Supreme Court has shown great concern regarding what it termed as a "shocking state of affairs" in Maharashtra, upon hearing that hundreds of criminal cases have been pending for years without charge framing, even though charge sheets were filed years ago.

A bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh made these remarks on October 7, 2025, while hearing Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 7964 of 2025, titled Shubham Ganpati Ganesh Rathod vs. State of Maharashtra, which had sought to challenge an August 22, 2024, order of the Bombay High Court that had previously rejected his plea.  

   

The Court observed that the petitioner had been in jail for over four years, from April 11, 2021, while charges against him were pending even though the charge sheet was lodged as early as July 8, 2021. In a previous order made on September 9, 2025, the Supreme Court had ordered the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court to provide an explanation for this extraordinary delay and to list identical cases across the State where accused persons had been in jail for years without even framing of charges.


In accordance with that instruction, the Bombay High Court Registrar General submitted an affidavit that included pertinent data. On reading the affidavit, the Supreme Court noted that at least 649 cases in Maharashtra had charges yet to be framed despite the filing of charge sheets — some as old as 2006, 2013, and 2014.

The affidavit gave reasons for the delay as many factors, most common among them being non-appearance of accused persons and counsel, both for the prosecution and for defense. The court took a serious notice of this and observed that such systemic delays contravened the basic right to a speedy trial as under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

Pointing out that Maharashtra has 36 districts, the Court reaffirmed that numerous earlier directions had been given by the Supreme Court for High Courts to facilitate time-bound trial of criminal cases. To this effect, prior to issuing further directions, the bench directed the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court to furnish detailed information from each District and Sessions Judge on:

Measures taken for timely framing of charges:
  • Action against concerned persons who do not cooperate (cancellation of bail where necessary),
  • Factoring in non-cooperation at the time of bail, and
  • Action taken against prosecuting agencies in case of delay in trial.
The Supreme Court also sought an update on whether compliance had been made with the Bombay High Court's June 6, 2025 circular, which invited the framing of charges by video conferencing to prevent delays on account of physical production.

Moreover, the Court asked for information regarding compliance with its previous orders in Hussain & Anr. v. Union of India (2017) 5 SCC 702 and the recent judgment in Siddhant Sidharth Balu Taktode v. State of Maharashtra (Criminal Appeal No. 5438 of 2024), both regarding expeditious criminal trials and under-trial prisoner's rights.

The Registrar General has been instructed to deposit a detailed affidavit within ten days and inform the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court about the direction of the Supreme Court. The case will again be listed for hearing on October 17, 2025.