The Uttar Pradesh trial court handling the Lakhimpur Kheri case involving the killing of farmers in October 2021 reported to the Supreme Court that the trial would take at least 5 years to complete.

While hearing the bail application of accused Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, in December 2022, the Supreme Court requested a report from the trial court. Ashish Mishra is facing murder charges for allegedly killing people during the October 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence after his vehicle allegedly ran over farmers protesting farm laws. "The report of the trial court says it will take 5 years for the trial to conclude. The report of Learned Additional Sessions Judge says there are 208 witnesses 171 documents and 27 FSL reports", the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and V Ramasubramanian read out from the report in the hearing January 11.

The Bench then asked Additional Advocate General of UP Garima Prashad “There are two FIR's. We want to know if there are accused in that other case too who have been arrested? Can you bring in a formal status report of that case too.”

The bench was referring to the cross-FIR filed in connection with the alleged lynching of farmers, which resulted in the death of the car driver and two others. As the bench informed the counsels about the status report filed by the First Additional Sessions Judge in Lakhimpur, Bhushan suggested that an order be issued for the daily examination of material witnesses.

The bench remarked, “There will be practical difficulties in that. If you speed this up then this court will have to be tried at the cost of all other cases. That is why we asked the trial court.” The bench added.

Initially, the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Mishra on February 10, 2022, but it was overturned in April 2022 by a Supreme Court bench comprised of then-CJI NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Hima Kohli, who noted that the High Court considered irrelevant factors while ignoring relevant ones. After that, the bail application was remanded to the High Court. The order came in response to an appeal filed by the relatives of the farmers killed in the crime. Following the Supreme Court's remand, the High Court dismissed the bail application on July 26 after re-hearing the case.

Case Title: Ashish Mishra Alias Monu v. State of U.P. 
Citation: SLP(Crl) No. 7857/2022