The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined the plea by Sameer Kulkarni, one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, challenging the June 28, 2023, Bombay High Court order dismissing his plea that the sanction by the authorities to prosecute him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was not proper.

A bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Aravind Kumar said that it was not inclined to interfere with the Bombay High Court order which had dismissed his plea.

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“We find no reason to interfere with the impugned judgement”, the bench said.

Earlier the top court on April 30 had stayed proceedings against Kulkarni before the special NIA court.

The High Court by its June 28, 2023 order had upheld the April 24, 2023 order of the NIA court rejecting Kulkarni’s plea questioning the competence of the trial court to hold the trial without valid sanction.

Kulkarni had approached the top court challenging the sanction to prosecute him granted under

Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act stating that the sanction was not proper. The plea challenged the competence of the trial court to conduct the trial and that too without a valid sanction under Section 45(2) of the UAPA.