A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta were hearing the bail plea of a PMLA case-accused who has been in custody for 18 months.
On Feb 8, hearing a case related to UAPA, a different SC bench had said that the conventional idea of ‘bail is the rule, jail is the exception’ was not applicable when an accused was facing charges under the anti-terror law but delay in trial proceedings could be a ground to seek bail.
On Wednesday, the Justice Khanna-led bench also frowned upon the practice of multiple chargesheets being filed by ED, resulting in the trial getting delayed, and said trial against accused should be immediately initiated against whom chargesheet has been filed without waiting for subsequent chargesheets to be filed against other accused in the case.
“If you keep filing chargesheet, then the person would remain in jail without trial. You must proceed with the trial after filing the chargesheet. You cannot say that the trial should not proceed because a supplementary chargesheet is to be filed. Trial must be initiated immediately after filing of the chargesheet. You cannot keep someone inside for an indefinite period without trial and you must ensure that trial is completed in 2-3 years,” the bench told additional solicitor general S V Raju who was appearing for ED.
“In this case, the person is behind bars for 18 months. This is bothering us,” the bench added. The bench was in favour of granting bail to accused Prem Prakash but refrained from doing so as the ASG sought some time to respond to the legal issues raised in the case. The court posted the matter to the last week of April.
The SC in Manish Sisodia case had held that detention or jail before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not become punishment without trial. “The right to bail in cases of delay, coupled with incarceration for a long period, depending on the nature of allegations, should be read into section 439 of Criminal Procedure Code and section 45 of PMLA Act. The reason is that the constitutional mandate is the higher law, and it is the basic right of the person charged of an offence and not convicted, that he be ensured and given a speedy trial. When the trial is not proceeding for reasons not attributable to the accused, the court, unless there are good reasons, may well be guided to exercise the power to grant bail,” it had said.
