New Delhi. The Supreme Court said that this is the right time for the lower courts and the High Court to understand that bail is the rule and jail is the exception. The Supreme Court also said that the lower courts seem to adopt a ‘safe attitude’ in bail cases. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Vishwanathan said that due to non-granting of bail even in ‘very clear cases’, there has been a flood of bail petitions in the Supreme Court, which has led to a huge increase in the number of pending cases.
While granting bail to Manish Sisodia, the Supreme Court said in its judgment that over time, trial courts and high courts have forgotten a very established principle of law that bail should not be stopped as a punishment. It appears that trial courts and high courts try to play safe in matters of granting bail. The principle that bail is a rule and denial is an exception.
The Supreme Court judges said that due to non-granting of bail even in open and shut cases, a large number of bail petitions have been flooded in this court, due to which a large number of bail petitions are increasing. Now the time has come that the lower courts and the High Court should recognize the principle that bail is the rule and jail is the exception. In the present case, in the ED case as well as the CBI case, 493 witnesses have been named. The case involves thousands of pages of documents and more than one lakh pages of digital documents. Thus it is clear that there is no possibility of conclusion of the trial in the near future.
deprivation of fundamental rights
The court said that in our view, keeping the appellant behind bars for an unlimited period of time in the hope of speedy completion of the trial would deprive him of his fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. As has been observed repeatedly, long imprisonment before being convicted of a crime should not be allowed to become a punishment without trial. Manish has deep roots in society. There is no possibility of his escape. In any case, conditions can be imposed to address the concern of the state.
No chance of tampering with evidence
The judge said that as far as the possibility of tampering with evidence is concerned, the case largely depends on the documentary evidence which has already been seized by the prosecution. In such a situation, there is no possibility of tampering with the evidence. – As far as the concern of influencing the witnesses is concerned, the said concern can be addressed by imposing stringent conditions on the appellant. The Supreme Court bench directed Sisodia to be released on a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh and two sureties of the same amount. The former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023 for alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-cancelled Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
The ED arrested him on March 9, 2023 in a money laundering case arising out of a CBI FIR. He resigned from the Delhi Cabinet on February 28, 2023.
Tags: Delhi liquor scam, Manish sisodia
FIRST PUBLISHED : August 9, 2024, 19:09 IST
