The Court went on to consider whether costs could be imposed on Sunil while dismissing his bail plea. To examine this question, the Court sought the assistance of an amicus curiae.
The amicus curiae told the Court that the Court has the authority to impose costs for the filing of frivolous bail applications.
The Court went on to note that Sunil appeared to be financially fit since he was able to engage multiple private lawyers to pursue one bail application after another.
“He chose to engage his own lawyers (instead of engaging legal aid lawyers) which of course is his right. But from the conduct of the petitioner that he is filing bail application after bail application before this Court and the Apex Court, it is clear that either he is financially fit or there are some others behind the curtain to help him to file these bail applications,” the Court observed.
The Court concluded that there was nothing wrong in imposing costs on Suni, even though he has been in jail for about seven years.
The Court, therefore, dismissed Sunil’s tenth bail application while ordering him to pay ₹25,000 as costs to the Kerala Legal Services Authority within one month.
Source: Barandbench
