“Stay on bail should not be granted except in very rare and exceptional cases.
Mr. Mehta suggested that the top court, in its judgment, could insist that High Courts give reasons while staying a trial court bail order.
The High Court order came the very next day after the trial court granted him bail on June 20.
The ED approached the High Court even before the trial court uploaded the bail order.
Mr. Kejriwal had appealed the Supreme Court against the stay, but the top court had opted to wait and see what the High Court did further.
The Supreme Court on July 12 said an inclination seen among higher courts to stall bail creates a real and present danger to the rights of personal liberty and due process.
A Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said the propensity to stay reasoned bail orders passed by trial courts was “shocking”.
“Stay on bail should not be granted except in very rare and exceptional cases. Stay of a bail order should be given only if there is apparent perversity or if provisions of law mandating the satisfaction of certain special conditions were not satisfied or if the person is a terrorist,” Justice Oka said.
The court said it would formally address in a judgment the issue of “casual” orders passed by High Courts staying or suspending bail granted by trial courts.
The court was reserving for judgment an appeal filed by Parvinder Khurana, an accused in a money laundering case, whose bail was stayed by the Delhi High Court for more than a year.
Justice Oka said High Courts cannot pass stay orders mechanically, blindly accepting the version of the investigating agencies.
“This is shocking. What signals are we sending by passing such stay orders? Can bail be stayed as a matter of course like this? How can bail be stayed for a whole year? Was he a terrorist? What was the reason to stay his bail?” Justice Oka asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Justice Oka said bail conditions set by the trial court were safeguard enough to prevent an accused from absconding or influencing witnesses.
Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, for the ED, said bail conditions work only as long as the accused remains within the jurisdiction of the court. There were cases in which the accused get bail and fly the coop to places which did not have an extradition treaty with India.
Mr. Mehta suggested that the top court, in its judgment, could insist that High Courts give reasons while staying a trial court bail order.
Kejriwal case
Recently, the Delhi High Court stayed a reasoned trial court order granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering case connected to the excise policy case. The High Court order came the very next day after the trial court granted him bail on June 20.
The ED approached the High Court even before the trial court uploaded the bail order.
Mr. Kejriwal had appealed the Supreme Court against the stay, but the top court had opted to wait and see what the High Court did further.
Meanwhile, the CBI arrested Mr. Kejriwal in jail on corruption charges in the excise policy case, leading him to withdraw from the top court.
“We are worried about personal liberty,” Justice Oka said on Friday.
