The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over instances where persons accused of relatively minor criminal offences are compelled to approach the apex court for bail [Jatin Murjani v State of UP]..A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Manmohan emphasised that prolonged incarceration was not necessary in such cases which are triable by magistrates. Dealing with one such case, the Court today remarked,"Time and again, we have said that there is no point in keeping a person in custody. He should have been given bail earlier only," the Court said..The Court was hearing an appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court's decision to reject bail applications in a case involving allegations of creating fraudulent GST registrations using stolen PAN and Aadhaar details..The apex court questioned why bail has not been granted to the litigant before it yet, particularly since to others who are co-accused in the same case have already been granted bail. The Court also referred to the practical challenges posed by delayed trials in such cases."In murder cases, we are granting bail considering the situations. Such Magistrate-triable cases won't be heard for 10 years. What is the purpose of keeping them in jail? On first principles, can we deny them bail? Even two co-accused have been granted bail," it stated..However, counsel for the State of Uttar Pradesh requested time to demonstrate how the case of the present accused was different from that of the co-accused.Accordingly, the the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on December 23. .[Live Courtroom Exchange]
