Supreme Court censures Allahabad High Court for adjourning bail petition 43 times, grants bail to accused

The Supreme Court recently pulled up the Allahabad High Court for adjourning a bail matter on 43 occasions [Ramnath Mishra @ Ramanath Mishra vs. Central Bureau of Investigation].

In an order passed on August 25, a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justice NV Anjaria noted that the accused had already spent more than three and a half years in custody and that such repeated adjournments in matters of personal liberty cannot be accepted.

The Court observed that bail matters must be treated with urgency by constitutional courts.

“Time and again we have observed that the matters relating to personal liberty should be entertained by the Courts with utmost speed...In the matters of personal liberty, the High Courts are not expected to keep the matter pending for such a long time and do nothing, except for adjourning from time to time,” the Bench noted.

Hence, it proceeded to grant bail to the accused-petitioner.

The Court also pointed out that in May this year, it had granted bail to a co-accused in the same case after finding that the High Court had adjourned his bail application 27 times.

In that order, the Court had already emphasised that High Courts cannot keep bail pleas pending without progress. It had said then that keeping such matters in limbo undermines the constitutional guarantee of personal liberty.

The present case was even more egregious, the Court said.

With both accused now on bail, the Court reiterated that delays in liberty matters cannot be countenanced and directed the trial court to continue proceedings in accordance with law.

The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Yashraj Singh Deora along with advocates Harshvardhan Jha, Yugandhara Pawar Jha, Aman Pathak, and Priyesh Mohan Srivastava.

The respondent-CBI was represented Additional Solicitor General SD Sanjay along with advocates Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Akshay Amritanshu, Praneet Pranav, and Madhav Sinhal.

[Read Order]