'You've Slaughtered 6 People & CJM Is Granting You Bail! Never Heard Of' : Supreme Court Denies Relief To Convicts

The Supreme Court today (November 28) dismissed SLPs filed by four persons, challenging the order of the Allahabad High Court whereby their post-conviction bail was cancelled.

They were convicted of murdering six persons but were subsequently granted interim bail by a Chief Judicial Magistrate.

In a peculiar set of facts, the convicts were released on bail on March 11 based on compliance with the directions passed by the division bench of the Allahabad High Court in Ganesh v. State of Uttar Pradesh on January 10.

By this order, the Allahabad High Court passed general directions instructing all Chief Judicial Magistrates to release the convicts, whose remission or premature release application was pending, on interim bail. Subsequently, many convicts were released on interim bail.

However, on May 25, 2024, the full bench (three judges) of the Allahabad High Court in Ambrish Kumar Verma v. State of Uttar Pradesh overruled Ganesh's case and held that the power of remission only lies with the appropriate Government and the division bench could not have issued such directions.

Following the full-bench decision, the Allahabad High Court cancelled the bail granted to the convicts by the CJM. Challenging that, the convicts approached the Supreme Court.

The matter came before a bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma.

The Court was informed that one of the deceased person's sons filed an application for the cancellation of the bail before the Allahabad High Court which was duly granted on October 19.

At the outset, the Counsel for the petitioner requested that he be granted some time to file a rejoinder. However, the bench stated that the cancellation of bail was good in law.

Justice Sharma expressed: "6 people were slaughtered. The Magistrate granted you bail on the basis of the order passed in Ganesh's case. The order passed in Ganesh's case was referred to full bench. The full bench said, 'no, Magistrate cannot do it'...There will be anarchy if people will be given bail on those cases where SLP has been dismissed."

The counsel submitted that the High Court's order cancelling bail is erroneous because it took into consideration the grounds which were not raised in the case. Moreover, he stated that his client was granted bail before the full bench reference was made and that the division bench which cancelled the bail should not have followed the order of the full bench.

However, Justice Sharma stated that the division bench was bound to follow the larger bench's order for "proper judicial discipline". He added: "You have slaughtered 6 people and the Chief Judicial Magistrate is granting you bail. This is never heard of. Very sorry. You could have filed a writ petition for issuance of a direction, directing the State to decide your remission petition but the Chief Judicial Magistrate could not have granted you bail."

The Court however directed that the criminal appeals pending before the High Court may be expeditiously decided within 6 months.

Case Details: MOHD. JAHEER @ MUNNE AND ORS. v. THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH AND ANR.., SLP(Crl) No. 13948-13949/2024