HC should hold hearings during pandemic: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has laid stress on the need for high court judges to hold courts during the pandemic to consider important cases so that people in distress are not deprived of their fundamental rights. A bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian made this observation on Tuesday while hearing an appeal filed by a Punjab resident who claimed he was denied a hearing by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on his bail application. Chunni Lal Gaba, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, claimed that the high court had declined the request for hearing his bail application that had been pending since February 28, 2020.

Expressing “shock” over the delay in taking up the application, the SC said: “Normally, we do not interfere with an interim order passed by the high court but we are constrained to pass the present order as we are shocked to see that the bail application under Section 439 CrPC is not being listed for hearing for more than one year.” “The accused has a right to hearing of his application for bail. In fact, the denial of hearing is an infringement of right and liberty assured to an accused,” said the order which ET has seen. “Even during the pandemic, when all courts are making attempts to hear and decide all matters, non-listing of such an application for bail defeats the administration of justice,” the order said. “Under the prevailing pandemic, at least half of the judges should sit on alternative days so that hearing is accorded to the person in distress,” the top court said.

The bench added: “Non-listing of application for regular bail, irrespective of seriousness or lack thereof, of the offences attributed to the accused, impinge upon the liberty of the person in custody.” Asking the HC to take “remedial steps at the earliest”, the SC said it “hopes that the high court will be able to take up the application for bail at an early date so that the right of the accused of hearing of the application for bail is not taken away by not entertaining such application”.