The Court thus called upon the High Court to prepare a list of accused who have served 14 years in jail and whose appeals have not been heard due to the fault of the lawyer.
“There may be cases where for whatever reasons, lawyer is not present. But if they have completed 14 years in prison, State itself can take an apt stand and the High Court judge can pass orders to examine the case for release. Absence of advocate cannot come in the way of this,” it further opined.
Separate lists for those have undergone 10-14 years in custody and 10 years in custody should also be prepared, the Court suggested.
Even as the Bench said that it could not control the High Court, it expressed its displeasure at the manner in which it handled such cases. Pointing to one such instance, it observed,
“In this other case, the accused has been in prison for 17 years and bail plea was rejected by High Court. Since counsel was not prepared, the plea was rejected, and thereafter, four times the plea was not heard even when counsel was ready.”
While making these observations, the Court granted bail to the accused in question. A exasperated Justice Kaul said,
“How much time did we take to grant bail? 15 minutes. We wanted High Court to find a template, but we are exasperated today.”
Source: Barandbench
