Supreme Court Grants Bail To 12 Convicts Who Were In Custody For More Than 14 Years

The bail was granted by the bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and AS Bopanna while considering a writ petition filed by the convicts seeking bail.

The convicts in the writ had further sought issuing directions to the High Court to bring to notice such cases to enable the High Court to grant bail in the matters expeditiously.

It was argued in the writ petition that the convicts had already undergone their sentence of life imprisonment and infact, more than the actual sentences of 14 years but were neither released on bail and nor their Criminal Appeals were decided by the High Court.

"The petitioners have lost all their hopes for getting any substantial justice from the High Court and even if they were to be acquitted by the High Court, they have already undergone more than the desired sentence and as such no useful purpose would be solved. The said example is an classic example to demonstrate not only the complete violation of Article 21 of the Constitution but also falls directly into the teeth of this Hon'ble Court's catena of decisions including one reported in Hussainara Khatoon and Hussain's case," the plea filed through Advocate Rishi Malhotra stated.

It may be noted that the bench led by Justice SK Kaul while expressing concern about long pendency of criminal appeals before the Allahabad High Court had directed for preparing list for the ones who have served more than 14 years and were not repeat offenders and for the ones where the accused had already served more than 10 years and could be granted bail in one go.

Case Title: Rajendra Singh & Ors v State of UP| Writ Petition (Criminal) 52/2022

Click Here To Read/Download Order