Judicial principal ‘Bail is rule and jail is exception' under scan

On a lawsuit filed by an aide of the jailed former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, the Supreme Court has decided to look into, what he said,  the new trend of denial of bail in high-profile cases though the settled judicial principle says  "bail is the rule and jail is an exception."

A three-judge bench of Justices Altamas Kabir, SS Nijjar and J Chelameshwar on Tuesday said the issue raised in the lawsuit filed by Ashok Kumar is controversial but important.

Lawyers such as Ranjit Kumar and Mukul Rohatgi argued that courts in of late have been routinely rejecting bail in “violation of fundamental right of life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution”.

Koda has been in jail for the past two years despite the fact that the minimum sentence for offences, allegedly committed by him, is merely three years and the maximum seven years. The counsel said of late trial courts are denying bail as some of these cases “are media driven and judges are afraid of their confidential reports”.

They also said media is virtually pre-judging issues before courts and tending to influence the conduct of judges.

Kumar said a serious issue has arisen as a result of denial of bail to Koda who also has fundamental rights, and it was time that at least a three-judge bench of the top court clearly lays down the law "so that rights of the accused are not trampled upon."

During the hearing for bail to the 2G spectrum case accused, various lawyers had stressed on the principle of "bail is rule and jail is an exception".