India, July 31 -- In the 2006 Mumbai train blast case, 12 individuals were acquitted by a two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court, which gave a detailed 667-page judgement. The Maharashtra government approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the high court's final judgement. It contended that the observations made in the verdict could potentially affect other ongoing criminal trials in the state. This line of reasoning, however, raises a fundamental question: Can the final judgment of acquittal of accused persons be stayed at the interim stage merely because other criminal trials will be affected? From a legal and procedural standpoint, the answer is a categorical no with a caveat about the extraordinary jurisdiction of the Supreme ...