New Delhi, July 18: The Supreme Court on Friday said all high courts should consider including in its rules a direction to the accused to disclose criminal antecedents in bail pleas.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta passed the order while expunging the strictures passed by the Rajasthan High Court against a judicial officer who granted bail to an accused in an attempt to murder case.
“We feel that every high court in the country should consider incorporating a similar provision in the respective high court rules and/or criminal side rules as it would impose an obligation on the accused to make disclosures regarding his/her involvement in any other criminal case(s) previously registered,” the bench said.
A court later allowed the complainant’s plea and cancelled the bail to the accused.
The accused then moved the high court which rejected his bail plea and passed strictures against the judicial officer saying he had granted bail in a “grossly inappropriate and cavalier manner”, ignoring his criminal record.
After the judicial officer moved against the strictures, the apex court said accounting for criminal antecedents of the accused while considering bail applications was the subject matter of concern for courts across the country.
It referred to the rules and orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, including the one which specifically provide that in bail applications, the petitioner shall mention whether he or she was involved in any other criminal case or not.
The top court directed for its order copy to be communicated to the registrar generals of all the high courts to include the rule if not already in place.
In the case at hand, the bench said the law was well-settled stipulating high courts to ordinarily refrain from passing strictures against judicial officers while deciding matters on the judicial side.
“In the present case, the fact remains that the strictures and/or the scathing observations were made by the single judge of the high court to the detriment of the appellant-judicial officer without providing him any opportunity of explanation or showing cause,” it said.
Expunging the strictures passed by the high court against the judicial officer, the bench said they were “uncalled for”. (PTI)
