"Allahabad High Court has long pendency of appeals:" Supreme Court to lay down parameters to guide High Court while dealing with bail pleas

The Supreme Court has stated that it will lay down broad parameters or guidelines to aid the Allahabad High Court in deciding bail applications filed seeking relief on the ground of time spent in jail (Saudan Singh vs State of UP).A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta said that Allahabad High Court has long pendency of appeals and some broad parameters would have to be laid down keeping in mind the exigencies of the High Court."The High Court of judicature at Allahabad and Lucknow have a long pendency of appeals. Thus, aspects such as period undergone, the heinousness of the crime, the age of the accused, the period taken in trial and whether the appellants are diligently prosecuting the appeals inter alia may be factors which may be material," the top court said. The Court was hearing a batch of 18 petitions, all seeking bail citing the time period already spent in prison by the petitioners. Additional Advocate General (AAG) Garima Prashad, appearing for the State of Uttar Pradesh, submitted that she will furnish a note suggesting the guidelines which can be adopted so that the High Court itself deals with these aspects for each case. "As though we have 18 matters today, many more may arise only on account of the period of the sentence already undergone. In the conspectus of the same, suggestions can also be made qua 18 matters before us and we will examine whether those cases should be remitted to the High court for consideration or there are some obvious cases which can be dealt with at the very threshold," the order by the apex court said. .The top court has stated that the High Court will assist AAG Prashad to formulate the guidelines by ensuring interaction between the standing counsel, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain and the Registrar of the High Court and the AAG. .One of the pleas among the 18 before the top court was by an accused seeking bail on the ground of serving close to 18 years in prison, out of which 8 years was without remission and 10 years was with remission as ordered by the trial court.The Allahabad High Court had rejected the application for bail in 2013 while the other co-accused are already on bail..[Read Order]