Supreme Court judge recuses from Maudany bail hearing

Justice Ramasubramanian said he had appeared for the accused several years ago

A view of the Supreme Court of India. File

Supreme Court judge, Justice V. Ramasubramanian, recused himself on Monday from hearing a plea by PDP leader Abdul Nazir Maudany to relax his bail condition and permit him to stay in his hometown in Kerala till the pendency of the trial in the 2008 Bengaluru bomb blast case, in which he is an accused.

The Bench, headed by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde, and also comprising Justice A.S. Bopanna, adjourned the hearing.

Justice Ramasubramanian recollected in court that he had appeared for Maudany, presently represented by senior advocate Jayant Bhushan and advocate Haris Neeraj, before the Madras High Court several years ago.

The CJI had orally remarked that Maudany was a “dangerous man” in the previous hearing.

Protracted trial

In 2014, the apex court had granted Maudany bail on the ground that he had already undergone judicial custody for four years since August 2010 and was suffering from various health ailments. The Supreme Court's bail came after the Karnataka authorities had undertaken to complete the trial within four months from November 14, 2014.

“More than six years have elapsed and the trial has still not been concluded. The trial was protracted on account of the lethargic attitude of the respondent (State of Karnataka). The case before the trial court is crawling at snail's pace and the progress of the trial was hampered on several occasions due to various reasons such as recall and re-examination of witnesses, transfer of special public prosecutor thrice, transfer of presiding officer thrice and now on account of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic,” Maudany’s present application said.

The prosecution miserably failed to adhere to the schedule of the trial fixed earlier, it said. “On many occasions the trial was delayed, even scuttled due to the inability of bringing the witnesses on time,” it said.

“He (Maudany) has spent 11 years in jail since arrest and seven years under conditional bail,” the application said.

It highlighted that the health of Maudany was getting worse and suitable health care was not available due to the pandemic situation. Besides, the stay in Bengaluru is causing an excessive financial burden on him, the application said.