New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that not deciding the matter pertaining to the liberty of a citizen expeditiously and shunting away the matter on one or the other ground would deprive the party of their precious right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said: "Needless to state that Article 21 of the Constitution of India is the soul of the Constitution as the liberty of a citizen is of paramount importance".
"Not deciding the matter pertaining to liberty of a citizen expeditiously and shunting away the matter on one or the other ground would deprive the party of their precious right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," observed the bench, in an order passed on February 16.
The bench said it has come across various matters from the Bombay High Court where bail or anticipatory bail applications are not being decided expeditiously.
"We have come across various matters from the High Court of Bombay where the bail/anticipatory bail applications are not being decided expeditiously. We have also come across one matter SLP Crl….@ Diary No.1540/2024 (Ashok Balwant Patil v. Mohan Madhukar Patil and Ors), wherein the application for anticipatory bail was not decided for a period of more than four years," said the bench.
The top court said it has also come across numerous matters wherein the judges are not deciding the matter on merits but find an excuse to shunt the case on different grounds.
"We, therefore, request the Chief Justice of the High Court of Bombay to convey our request to all the judges exercising the criminal jurisdiction to decide the matter pertaining to bail/anticipatory bail as expeditiously as possible," the bench stressed.
"The Registrar (Judicial) concerned of this Court is directed to communicate this order to the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court, who shall place the same before Hon’ble the Chief Justice of High Court of Bombay," said the bench, while disposing of an appeal filed by Amol Vitthal Vahile.
The top court's order came on a plea by Vahile, who had challenged a March 30, 2023, Bombay High Court order disposing of his bail application while permitting him to file such a plea before the trial court. The High Court, while observing that the accused was in jail for about seven-and-a-half years, said it appeared that prior to the filing of the bail application, the accused had filed a similar plea which was withdrawn in April 2022.
On January 29, 2024, the top court quashed the High Court order of March last year and asked it to decide the matter on merits within two weeks. Following this, the High Court on February 12 gave bail to the accused.
