The Supreme Court today directed the Punjab & Haryana High Court to dispose of the appeal filed by the accused in Jindal Gang Rape case in five months..A Bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao passed the order while also ordering that the two accused will continue to remain in custody. Accused no. 3, Vikas Garg, who was granted protection from arrest will continue to get the same benefit..Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appeared for the appellant..Senior Advocates Shanti Bhushan, Sidharth Luthra and Huzefa Ahmadi appeared for the accused along with advocates Kartik Seth and Prasenjit Keswani..The three accused were granted bail by the Punjab & Haryana High Court but the same was later stayed by the Supreme Court..Subsequently, the Supreme Court had stayed the non-bailable arrest warrant against one accused, Vikas Garg. The other two accused are still in jail..When the hearing began today, Justice SA Bobde, after hearing the accused, stated that it will direct the High Court to dispose of the case in three to six months so that the question of bail is rendered moot..He also observed that the High Court had granted bail to the accused after conviction and two of the accused were not on bail while the trial was progressing..“The peculiarity of this case is that the accused have been granted bail after conviction [by trial court]. We don’t have any precedent for that.”.Bobde J. then said that the Court will direct High Court to dispose of the appeal in 3 to 6 months..“But if you want to have a hearing on merits, then you should be agreeable to inviting observations from us”, he said..The accused agreed to the proposition to have the appeal disposed of expeditiously by the High Court..The Court, therefore, proceeded to order the High Court to,.“dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as possible, no later than five months.”.The Court also ordered that the earlier orders relating to bail of accused will continue..This would mean that accused 1 and 2 will continue to remain in custody while accused 3, Vikas Garg will receive protection from arrest.
The Supreme Court today directed the Punjab & Haryana High Court to dispose of the appeal filed by the accused in Jindal Gang Rape case in five months..A Bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao passed the order while also ordering that the two accused will continue to remain in custody. Accused no. 3, Vikas Garg, who was granted protection from arrest will continue to get the same benefit..Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appeared for the appellant..Senior Advocates Shanti Bhushan, Sidharth Luthra and Huzefa Ahmadi appeared for the accused along with advocates Kartik Seth and Prasenjit Keswani..The three accused were granted bail by the Punjab & Haryana High Court but the same was later stayed by the Supreme Court..Subsequently, the Supreme Court had stayed the non-bailable arrest warrant against one accused, Vikas Garg. The other two accused are still in jail..When the hearing began today, Justice SA Bobde, after hearing the accused, stated that it will direct the High Court to dispose of the case in three to six months so that the question of bail is rendered moot..He also observed that the High Court had granted bail to the accused after conviction and two of the accused were not on bail while the trial was progressing..“The peculiarity of this case is that the accused have been granted bail after conviction [by trial court]. We don’t have any precedent for that.”.Bobde J. then said that the Court will direct High Court to dispose of the appeal in 3 to 6 months..“But if you want to have a hearing on merits, then you should be agreeable to inviting observations from us”, he said..The accused agreed to the proposition to have the appeal disposed of expeditiously by the High Court..The Court, therefore, proceeded to order the High Court to,.“dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as possible, no later than five months.”.The Court also ordered that the earlier orders relating to bail of accused will continue..This would mean that accused 1 and 2 will continue to remain in custody while accused 3, Vikas Garg will receive protection from arrest.
