Is Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate above Supreme Court, asks SC [Read order]

Is a Metropolitan Magistrate superior to the Supreme Court of India? A vacation Bench of Supreme Court posed this question in rhetoric when it was brought to its notice that an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai had refused to release an accused on bail despite a Supreme Court order to that effect..As reported by PTI, the situation arose before the Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Mohan M Shantanagoudar yesterday..The Supreme Court had on May 17 directed the release of the petitioner on bail without mentioning the bail amount..However, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Esplanade, Mumbai, (ACMM) refused to release the petitioner on bail on the ground that bail amount was not mentioned by the Supreme Court in its order..When this was brought to the Supreme Court’s notice, the Bench remarked,.“We (apex court) have granted him (accused) bail. Is the ACMM (Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate) above us? Is the ACMM an appellate court of the Supreme Court? We have passed the bail order and the magistrate is saying the Supreme Court does not know how to grant bail.” .The Court then proceeded to order that “once an order is passed by the Supreme Court directing release of the petitioner on bail and there is no mention about the bail amount, it is incumbent on the trial court to fix the amount for the bail bonds.”.The Court also came down upon the order of ACMM stating,.“The order dated 21st May, 2018, of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Esplanade, Mumbai, refusing to release the petitioner on bail on the ground that bail amount has not been mentioned in our order, is not justified.”.It, therefore, directed the ACMM to release the petitioner on bail to his satisfaction by fixing the amount for the bail bonds..Read the order below.