Hyderabad: In a significant ruling the Hyderabad High Court has declared that a person who is convicted for life, and whose appeal is pending before the HC, is entitled to apply for bail after he has undergone a minimum of five years imprisonment following his conviction.
A division bench comprising Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy and Justice M.S.K. Jaiswal. while granting bail to Batchu Ranga Rao and eight others who were convicted in a murder case in Guntur district, evolved criteria to grant bail in appeals pending before the High Court.
Earlier, the bench had invited suggestions from criminal lawyers T. Niranjan Reddy and K. Suresh Reddy, and also ascertaining views of the TS and AP governments.
Good behaviour to decide on murders
The bench mainly relied on the judgement delivered by the Supreme Court in Kashmira Singh versus State of Punjab in which the apex court observed: “It would, indeed, be a travesty of justice to keep a person in jail for a period of five or six years for an offence which is ultimately found not to have been committed by him. So long as this court is not in a position to hear the appeal of an accused within a reasonable period of time, the court should ordinarily, unless there are cogent grounds for acting otherwise, release the accused on bail in cases where special leave has been granted to the accused to appeal against his conviction and sentence.”
The bench ruled that grant of bail in favour of persons convicted under murder cases shall be subjected to their good conduct in the jail as reported by the respective jail superintendents in both AP and TS.
The bench ruled that convicts who are undergoing imprisonment for offences relating to dacoity, murder for gain, kidnapping for ransom, killing of public servant and offences under the National Security Act and offences pertaining to narcotic drugs are not entitled to bail though they satisfy the criteria of completing more than five years of term and having good conduct.
The bench said that while granting bail, apart from the usual conditions, appellants on bail must be present before the court at the time of hearing of their criminal appeals and they must report in the respective police stations once a month during the bail period.
The bench made it clear that the broad criteria cannot be understood as invariable principles and the bench hearing the bail application may exercise its discretion either for granting or rejecting bail, based on the merits of each case.
The bench observed that the grant of bail based on these principles shall, however, be subject to the provisions of Sec. 389 of the CrPC (which deals with release of appellant on bail).
While granting bail to the convicts in the case it was hearing, the bench directed them to execute a bond for Rs 10,000 and furnish two sureties each before the trial court.
