Broad Parameter Of 50% Sentence Undergone Can Be Basis For Grant Of Bail To Convicts When Appeal Is Pending : Supreme Court

 "The fact of the matter is that if an appeal is pending at the High Court stage and the convict has already undergone eight years of actual sentence, exceptions apart, in most cases bail would be the rule. Despite this, the cases are not coming up for consideration. We are not clear as to how much time does it take for a bail application to be listed in such a case. There may be convicts who may not be able to have the requisite access to legal advice for moving the bail application," the bench observed while granting four weeks time to the High Court to place before the Top Court a policy strategy in this behalf.

Taking note of the fact that there might be even convicts in custody in cases other than a life sentence, the bench said that in these cases the High Court could consider granting bail by considering the broad parameter of 50 per cent of the actual sentence undergone.

"We may note that there may be even convicts in custody in cases other than life sentence cases and in those cases again the broad parameter of 50 per cent of the actual sentence undergone can be the basis for grant of bail", the Supreme Court stated.

The bench acknowledged that there might be a  scenario where an appeal comes up for hearing and the appellant may be seeking adjournment rather than arguing the appeal. The might not be a case for grant of bail as the High Court is willing to bestow consideration on the merits of the appeal.

"We are also in agreement that the convict must approach the High Court first as otherwise, this Court is being unnecessarily burdened but then there must be a mechanism to see that if he approaches the High Court, those bail applications are listed promptly," Court said.

"In the conspectus of our broad observations, it is incumbent on the High Court to place before us as to how they propose to see that the cases mentioned aforesaid are taken up for consideration for grant of bail," Court noted in its order.

The Top Court while hearing the same matter had also registered suo moto case on the issue of long pendency of appeals in the Allahabad High Court.

Case Title: Saudan Singh v State of UP| Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.4633/2021