No bail in NIA cases if the trial is completed timely within six months, the Supreme Court suggests

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 18, 2025) noted that bail can be stayed in cases probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) provided the trial is completed within six months.

A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant agreed with Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Union government, that the NIA is probing cases with national implications.

The court considered setting up a sufficient number of “special and exclusive” NIA courts.

“We will see these courts working exclusively for you day and night [NIA],” Judge Kant noted.

During the hearing, attorneys discussed how special courts created to try offenses under a certain special statute ultimately allowed other cases to clog their role, defeating the purpose for which they were created.

The apex court has repeatedly referred to the enormous burden of trial judges who have to perform multiple duties of hearing ordinary criminal cases while sparing time to try terror and heinous crimes. Due to trial delays, undertrials continue to languish in prisons.

In an earlier hearing, the apex court had highlighted that stalled or non-starting trials were mainly caused by existing courts being given the additional responsibility of functioning as NIA and special courts.

“Designating an existing court or entrusting exclusive trials under the NIA Act to such designated courts would undeniably be to the detriment of other trials, including hundreds of under-trials languishing in jails, senior citizens and marginalized persons,” Justice Kant had asked the Center in July.