India News | Anticipatory Bail Plea Not Taken Up by HC for Six Months; SC Grants Interim Protection
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Supreme Court Wednesday granted interim protection for four weeks to a 72-year-old man, who is an accused in an alleged cheating case lodged in Bihar, considering that his plea seeking anticipatory bail has not been taken up for around six months by the Patna High Court.
New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court Wednesday granted interim protection for four weeks to a 72-year-old man, who is an accused in an alleged cheating case lodged in Bihar, considering that his plea seeking anticipatory bail has not been taken up for around six months by the Patna High Court.
The apex court was told by the counsel appearing for the petitioner that the anticipatory bail application is listed at serial number 3076 and it will take "very long time" to be heard by the high court.
A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao, while directing that no coercive steps be taken against the petitioner for four weeks, requested the high court to dispose of his anticipatory bail application within four weeks.
"We are not persuaded to entertain this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution to grant relief to the petitioner as this application for anticipatory bail is pending in the high court," said the bench, also comprising justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna.
"However, as his application has not been taken up for the last six months, we grant interim protection to the petitioner by directing that no coercive steps shall be taken against him for a period of four weeks from today," the bench said while disposing of the petition.
The top court noted that anticipatory bail application filed by the petitioner, who is the chairman-cum-director of a private firm, was dismissed by the sessions court on March 19 this year and he had thereafter approached the high court seeking pre-arrest bail on March 26.
Senior advocate S D Sanjay appeared for the petitioner before the top court.
In his plea, the petitioner has said that he is suffering from ailments and requires immediate attention and knee replacement.
"The consequence of refusal to list the petitioner's anticipatory bail application is that the petitioner may be arrested, violating his civil liberties, which will also totally destroy the petitioner's reputation and jeopardize the knee replacement procedure,” said the plea, drawn by advocate Akshay Amritanshu.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)