The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to grant ex-parte bail to an associate of actor Sanjay Dutt [Images], sentenced to ten-years rigorous imprisonment in 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast case.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran, however, issued notices to state of Maharashtra, returnable by three weeks, on a petition filed by Ibrahim Musa Chauhan, alias Baba Chauhan, seeking bail in the case and challenging his conviction and sentence by special TADA judge.

Earlier, counsel for the petitioner sought bail, without notice to the state, relying on a Supreme Court judgment titled 'State of Punjab v/s Jagdev Singh Talwandi', in which it was held that the courts should not pronounce sentence till the reasoned judgment is ready.

The counsel said in the present case also, sentence has been pronounced without giving a detailed order and hence the petitioner should be granted bail as he has already undergone six years imprisonment and the trial court order was pronounced on November 29, 2006.

The allegations against the petitioner are that he was carrying illegal arms and was found sitting in Sanjay Dutt's car and was involved in the conspiracy of 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast.