The Supreme Court strongly criticised the Allahabad High Court for delaying a bail hearing 43 times. The top court said liberty cases must be decided fast and granted bail to the accused.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India has come down heavily on the Allahabad High Court for repeatedly postponing a bail case without deciding it.
The country’s highest court noted that the bail plea of an accused was adjourned as many as 43 times, while the man spent more than three and a half years in jail without a decision on his plea.
The order was passed on August 25 by a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justice NV Anjaria. The judges made it very clear that such a practice is not acceptable, especially when the case is about personal liberty, which is a fundamental right under the Constitution.
The Bench remarked that bail applications must always be treated with urgency by constitutional courts like the High Courts.
Stressing on the importance of speedy hearings in such matters, the court said:
“Time and again we have observed that the matters relating to personal liberty should be entertained by the Courts with utmost speed…In the matters of personal liberty, the High Courts are not expected to keep the matter pending for such a long time and do nothing, except for adjourning from time to time.”
After making these strong observations, the Supreme Court granted bail to the accused-petitioner.
The Court also reminded that this was not the first time it had criticised such delays in the same case. Back in May this year, the Supreme Court had already given bail to a co-accused after noticing that his bail plea was adjourned 27 times by the Allahabad High Court.
At that time, the top court had already underlined that High Courts cannot keep bail applications hanging endlessly. It had made it clear that not deciding bail matters amounts to a violation of the constitutional guarantee of personal liberty.
The present case, the Bench said, was even worse because the adjournments had reached 43 times, which is shocking.
With both the accused now granted bail, the Supreme Court once again repeated that such delays in matters of liberty will not be tolerated. It also directed the trial court to move ahead with the case as per law without unnecessary delay.
- The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Yashraj Singh Deora, assisted by advocates Harshvardhan Jha, Yugandhara Pawar Jha, Aman Pathak, and Priyesh Mohan Srivastava.
- The respondent-CBI was represented by Additional Solicitor General SD Sanjay along with advocates Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Akshay Amritanshu, Praneet Pranav, and Madhav Sinhal.
CASE TITLE:
Ramnath Mishra @ Ramanath Mishra vs Central Bureau of Investigation.
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