The Supreme Court on Tuesday objected to how bail orders faced repeated, threadbare challenges by the state in constitutional courts.
A Bench led by Justice S.K. Kaul expressed its displeasure at the phenomenon while hearing petitions filed by the Delhi Police against the bail granted to activists Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha in a case connected to the 2020 Delhi riots.
“We don’t believe in unnecessarily keeping people behind the bars,” the Supreme Court observed.
The remarks from the Bench came after the Delhi Police counsel, advocate Rajat Nair, said that they had a case for cancellation of the bail granted to the three activists by the Delhi High Court. Mr. Nair, however, then sought an adjournment as the Solicitor General was arguing before a Constitution Bench in another courtroom.
Listing the case for January 31, the Bench referred to the hours of judicial time spent on hearing challenges to bail orders.
“You have spent hours in bail matters. It is complete wastage of time of the high court. You want a full trial in bail matters? This, I don’t understand,” Justice Kaul observed.
Published - January 17, 2023 11:56 pm IST
