The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea filed by 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Abu Salem, who alleged that he had been kept in “illegal custody” for over 10 months after completing the 25-year sentence that could be imposed on him under the terms of his extradition from Portugal.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta dismissed the petition as withdrawn and granted liberty to Salem to seek early listing and final disposal of his pending plea before the Bombay High Court.
Salem had challenged a July 2025 order of the Bombay High Court, which had observed that prima facie the period of 25 years had not yet been completed. The High Court admitted his petition but declined to grant interim relief.
When the matter came up before the Supreme Court, the bench noted that the High Court had only refused interim relief and was yet to decide the case finally.
“Go and argue it finally,” the bench told Salem’s counsel, indicating that the appropriate course was to pursue the matter before the High Court.
Salem contended that if remission for good behaviour under the Maharashtra Prisons Rules, 1962 was taken into account, he had already completed 25 years of imprisonment and was therefore being held unlawfully.
His counsel submitted that he had undergone “more than 10 months of illegal custody” beyond the permissible term and pointed to what was described as an “arithmetical error” in an affidavit filed by the Inspector General of Prisons.
The Supreme Court, however, noted that the affidavit indicated that Salem had completed about 19 years of actual custody.
Justice Vikram Nath remarked, “You were given 25 years for not doing something good to the society. You are convicted under the TADA Act.”
Salem was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after India assured Portuguese authorities that he would not face the death penalty and that his imprisonment would not exceed 25 years.
In a 2022 judgment on a separate plea, the Supreme Court had held that the Union government was bound to honour this assurance and release him upon completion of the 25-year term.
During earlier proceedings on January 12, the Court had asked Salem to substantiate his claim that he had completed the full 25 years.
Apart from the Mumbai blasts case, Salem was also convicted in the 1995 murder of Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain, for which a special TADA court awarded him life imprisonment in 2015.
With the Supreme Court declining to examine the issue at this stage, the question of whether Salem has completed the 25-year term — including the effect of remission — will now be decided by the Bombay High Court, where his petition remains pending.
