Allahabad High Court Imposes Rs 10K Cost On Plea For Speedy Disposal Of Bail Application Which Was Not Filed

The Bench of Justice Ravi Nath Tilhari and Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta dismissed the plea while noting,

"(The plea) is praying for a direction for speedy disposal of the bail application when the petitioners are not in jail, nor any bail application at their behest is pending before any court of law."

The Prayer of the Plea

The relief claimed in the instant petition was as follows: -

"Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the court below to consider and dispose of the bail application of the applicant expeditiously if possible on same day in First Information Report dated 29.07.2018, registered as Case Crime no. 0833 of 2018, under Section 363 and 366 IPC, Police Station Tajganj, District Agra."

On a query made by the Court as to before which court the bail application was pending, for which direction was being sought for speedy disposal, the counsel for the petitioners stated before the Court that "so far no bail application has been filed."

It was further admitted by him that the petitioners are not in jail.

Also, the Court perused the record and found that the petitioners had earlier approached the court by way of Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 23489 of 2018.

Further, the counsel for the petitioners stated before the Court that the relief which was sought in the earlier writ petition was for quashing of the same FIR, in respect of which, the instant petition was filed.

It may be noted that the earlier writ petition was dismissed as infructuous.

In response to this, the Court remarked,

"In such circumstances, filing of the instant petition, praying for a direction for speedy disposal of the bail application when the petitioners are not in jail, nor any bail application at their behest is pending before any court of law, amounts to gross abuse of the process of law."

Case title - Anita Singh And Another v. State Of U.P. And 3 Others [Criminal Misc. Writ petition No. - 13599 of 2020]