One of the appellants in the instant case had moved the top court earlier this year after his criminal appeal from 2012 was kept pending by the Allahabad High Court even as his bail was rejected in 2019.
In an order passed in March, the Bench expressed anguished at the High Court’s conduct in the appeal, and stated that is was “of the view that the bail should have been for the asking and the impugned order is completely unsustainable.“
The top court was told during that hearing that there are similar cases of incarceration of over 16 years pending consideration even for bail before the High Court’s Lucknow Bench. Further, there was no Bench to hear criminal matters for the last 25 days, the Court was told. The top court responded by observing,
“This is a disturbing state of affairs, more so as we have been seized with the issue of the pendency of bail matters before the High Court of Allahabad and the Lucknow Bench and had even issued directions in this behalf for expediting the same in Saudan Singh Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh (Crl. Appeal No.308/ 2022) dated 25th February, 2022.“
Source: Barandbench
