Last week, the Supreme Court, through a bench comprising of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, and Sanjeev Karol, stressed on the need for judicial forums to expeditiously act on matters involving civil liberties. Additionally, the apex court urged all lower courts to ensure that bail orders are issued promptly and without unnecessary elaboration.
“Detailed elaboration of evidence has to be avoided at the stage of grant/rejection of bail/anticipatory bail…It is always said that in the matters pertaining to liberty of citizens, the Court should act promptly…inordinate delay in passing an order pertaining to liberty of a citizen is not in tune with the constitutional mandate,” the bench said.
The Supreme Court made the observations after a 13-page order by the Bombay High Court was challenged before it, having been issued five weeks after being reserved.
The case pertained to two individuals who had applied for anticipatory bail after being accused of violating the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The Supreme Court had granted them protection from arrest in March, citing delay in filing the complaint, lack of prima facie evidence, and a civil dispute.
Earlier, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had denied bail. In its ruling on the bail application, the Supreme Court made its interim order final, stating that no custody interrogation would be necessary.
In another case in December, the Supreme Court had ruled that bail hearings should not last more than 10 minutes to avoid wasting court time. Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka had made this observation.
