'Infringement of liberty': SC shocked as bail plea not listed for over a year

The Supreme Court has expressed its dissatisfaction after learning that a bail application under Section 439 of the CrPC was not listed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court for more than yearA bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian said The accused has a right to hearing of his application for bail In fact the denial of hearing is an infringement of right and liberty assured to an accusedWhile observing that the top court normally does not interfere with an interim order passed by the High Court the bench added We are shocked to see that the bail application under Section 439 CrPC is not being listed for hearing for more than one yearThe top court made this observation while hearing a special leave petition filed by Chunni Lal Gaba against the order declining the request for hearing of an application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 pending since February 28 2020It said that even during the pandemic when all courts are making attempts to hear and decide all matters nonlisting of such an application for bail defeats the administration of justiceUnder the prevailing pandemic at least half of the judges should sit on alternative days so that hearing is accorded to the person in distress Nonlisting of application for regular bail irrespective of seriousness or lack thereof of the offences attributed to the accused impinges upon the liberty of the person in custody the top court observedIt said it hopes that the High Court will be able to take up the application for bail at an early date so that the right of the accused of hearing of application for bail is not taken away by not entertaining such application on the mentioning memoLet the Registrar General of the High Court bring this order to the notice of the competent authority to take remedial steps at the earliest The special leave petition stands disposed of accordingly said the top court in its order passed on TuesdayThe petitioner along with nine members of his family were charge sheeted by the ED on charges of amassing wealth violating the PMLA provisions They were allegedly involved in the infamous multicrore synthetic drug racket case in which Jadish Singh Bhola is the prime accusedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever