While granting bail to former Delhi Dy CM Sisodia after 17-month-long incarceration, the Supreme Court observed that it is high time that the trial courts and the high courts should recognize the principle that “bail is rule and jail is exception”. A report by Mudit Mathur
After 17-month-long incarceration, the Supreme Court of India at last granted bail to former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia, lamenting that trial courts and high courts in the country have forgotten the principle that ‘bail is the rule, jail an exception’ and attempt to play safe. The Court observed that to ensure the right to a fair trial, an accused cannot be denied the right to have an inspection of prosecution documents, including the un-relied upon documents. The Court allowed the bail applications filed by Sisodia in both the CBI and ED cases considering the delay in commencing the trial in the liquor policy case.
The bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan observed, “Over a period of time, the trial courts and the High Courts have forgotten a very well-settled principle of law that bail is not to be withheld as a punishment. From our experience, we can say that it appears that the trial courts and the High Courts attempt to play safe in matters of grant of bail. The principle that bail is a rule and refusal is an exception is, at times, followed in breach. On account of non-grant of bail even in straight forward open and shut cases, this Court is flooded with a huge number of bail petitions thereby adding to the huge pendency. It is high time that the trial courts and the High Courts should recognize the principle that “bail is rule and jail is exception”.
“It is to be noted that there are around 69,000 pages of documents involved in both the CBI and the ED matters. Taking into consideration the huge magnitude of the documents involved, it cannot be stated that the accused is not entitled to take a reasonable time for inspection of the said documents. In order to avail the right to fair trial, the accused cannot be denied the right to have inspection of the documents including the “un-relied upon documents,” said the bench.
The finding that an accused must be allowed inspection of Un-relied Upon Documents to ensure free trial deems significance in the context of allegations levelled in Manish Sisodia’s and Arvind Kejriwal’s cases that ED put certain documents in Un-relied Upon Documents and withheld exculpatory material.
