Rashid Khan. Khan was convicted for his key role in the devastating 1993 case of the bomb blast in Bowbazar, under the Indian Penal Code, Explosives Substances Act and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). Chief Justice of India Surya Kant assured the state's counsel that the matter would be put up for an early hearing; the state's special leave petition (SLP) was mentioned urgently before him.

The law battle takes another turn after a single-judge Bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna of the Delhi High Court made its decision on June 5. According to the High Court, Khan, who has been in jail since his arrest in March 1993, was entitled to release on the basis of the reformative theory of punishment. His "very very good" prison behaviour, his timely return from multiple paroles and the fact that he had a significantly reduced risk of reoffending because of his medical condition and advanced age led the court to believe that the continued incarceration would prove to be an unproductive use of the prison system. The judgment also cited the legal equivalence between co-convict Pannalal Jaysoara, who had been given a remission, and Mr. Dsouza's case and said that a higher degree of seriousness should not be a bar to rehabilitation if all conditions were fulfilled.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal government is adamant that the release be delayed and Khan is seen by them as the key brain behind the deadly 1993 blast. State officials say the terror attack had "widespread and dire consequences" on society and that local police departments have all objected to his release. The State Sentence Review Board had earlier recommended his release in 2015, but this plan was soon tabled after the hurdle of jurisdictional ambiguity regarding the power of remission in the context of rigid TADA rules. Now the Supreme Court will consider the judiciary's corrective stance in the balance with the state's call for national security and absolute deterrence.