Supreme Court flags delays by Bombay High Court in deciding bail matters

The Supreme Court recently called on judges of the Bombay High Court to promptly hear and dispose of bail matters since delay in hearing bail matters would lead to deprivation of personal liberty [Amol Vitthal Vahile vs State of Maharashtra]..A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta lamented that the High Court was not hearing such cases expeditiously but rather finding 'excuses' to 'shunt' the case on various grounds."We have come across various matters from the High Court of Bombay where the bail/anticipatory bail applications are not being decided expeditiously ... numerous matters wherein the learned Judges are not deciding the matter on merits but find an excuse to shunt the case on different grounds," the apex court noted. Hence, it directed High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya to impress upon all the other judges to hear and decide bail cases expeditiously. "We, therefore, request the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of the High Court of Bombay to convey our request to all the judges exercising the criminal jurisdiction to decide the matter pertaining to bail/anticipatory bail as expeditiously as possible", the apex court said..The observations came while hearing a bail plea on February 16. The Supreme Court noted that it had during the previous hearing of the matter on January 29, directed the High Court to expeditiously hear the case instead of remitting it to the trial court afresh.Pursuant to that order, the High Court had heard the matter and granted bail to the petitioner on February 12. "It is thus clear that before the aforesaid order was passed by this Court on 29.01.2024, the High Court instead of deciding the application for bail on merits shunted it on one or the other ground," the Supreme Court noted on February 16.The bench said that the High Court had initially refused to hear the case on merits on flimsy grounds."Needless to state that Article 21 of the Constitution of India is the soul of the Constitution as the liberty of a citizen is of paramount importance. Not deciding the matter pertaining to liberty of a citizen expeditiously and shunting away the matter on one or the other ground would deprive the party of their precious right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," the top court explained.Hence, it called for quick disposal of bail cases and also directed that the Bombay Chief Court Chief Justice be given a copy of the apex court's order for necessary action..Advocate Prashant Shrikant Kenjale appeared for the accused.Advocates Aaditya Aniruddha Pande and Siddharth Dharmadhikari represented the Maharashtra government..[Read order]