Questioning the legal strategy adopted while seeking bail for former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, a section of the AIADMK felt that the primary objective should have been to get Ms. Jayalalithaa out of prison given the political ramifica-tions of her absence in the State. Bail applications for others could have waited.
However, legal experts dismissed such criticism of the lawyers — Ram Jethmalani and Amit Desai — stating that the court has to be satisfied that there was a prima facie case for suspension of sentence.
Former Solicitor General Harish Salve said Section 389 of the Criminal Procedure Code, under which bail applications are filed in the High Court, is divided into two parts: suspension of sentence and seeking of bail.
“A counsel has to convince the Appellate Court that he has a prima facie case. He has to show there is an arguable case. For this, he has to go into the merits of the case. There is no restriction imposed on him to limit himself to the grounds of bail,” Mr. Salve said.
Published - October 09, 2014 02:49 am IST
