New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday, while granting bail to AAP leader Manish Sisodia in the Delhi excise policy scam, said it is high time that the trial courts and the High Courts should recognise the principle that "bail is the rule and jail is exception".
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan observed that over a period of time, the trial courts and the High Courts have forgotten a very well-settled principle of law that bail is not to be withheld as a punishment.
The bench said from its experience, that the judges' can say that it appears that the trial courts and the High Courts attempt to play safe in matters of grant of bail and the principle that bail is a rule and refusal is an exception is, at times, followed in breach.
"On account of non-grant of bail even in straightforward open and shut cases, this court is flooded with a huge number of bail petitions thereby adding to the huge pendency. It is high time that the trial courts and the High Courts should recognize the principle that 'bail is the rule and jail is the exception'”, said the bench.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, representing the Enforcement Directorate, urged the apex court to reject the bail pleas filed by Sisodia and relegate the appellant to approach the trial court afresh.
"Now, relegating the appellant to again approach the trial court and thereafter the High Court and only thereafter this court, in our view, would be making him play a game of 'snake and ladder'. The trial court and the High Court have already taken a view and in our view relegating the appellant again to the trial court and the High Court would be an empty formality," said the bench.
The bench stressed that on account of a long period of incarceration running for around 17 months and the trial even not having commenced, the appellant has been deprived of his right to a speedy trial. The bench said the right to speedy trial and the right to liberty are sacrosanct rights. "On denial of these rights, the trial court as well as the High Court ought to have given due weightage to this factor," it said.
The bench granted bail to Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. The top court noted that a perusal of its second order would itself reveal that this court recorded the submissions of the Solicitor General, which were made on instructions, that the investigation would be concluded and final complaint/chargesheet would be filed expeditiously and at any rate on or before 3rd July 2024 and, accordingly, 8th charge-sheet has been filed on 28th June 2024 by the ED.
The bench said it could thus be seen that, even according to the respondents, the investigation was to be concluded on or before 3rd July 2024. "In that view of the matter, we find that the contention raised by the ASG is self-contradictory. If the investigation itself was to conclude on or before 3rd July 2024, the question is how could the trial have commenced prior to that?," said the bench.
The bench added, “If the investigation itself was to conclude after a period of 8 months from the date of the first order of this court, there was no question of the trial being concluded within a period of 6-8 months from the date of the first order of this court. We find that both the High Court and the trial court have failed to take this into consideration”.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, over purported irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
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