List within two weeks bail pleas of appellants in jail for 14+ years: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the Registrar (IT) to prepare a list of appeals where appellants have been in jail for 14 years or more, and to list those matters for consideration of bail within two weeks [In Re : Guddu Mondal @ Guddu Ali Mondal]..A Bench of Justices Bivas Pattanayak and Joymalya Bagchi took note of the order of the Supreme Court in the case of Saudan Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, where a direction was issued to the Allahabad High Court and the Uttar Pradesh government to prepare a list of cases where the appellants were incarcerated for more than 14 years. This order was made so that the appellants could be released at one go, provided they were not repeat-offenders."Taking judicial notice of such fact, we are of the view similar exercise ought to be undertaken in this Court also," the Bench said. .The High Court was hearing a plea seeking bail filed by appellants who had already suffered detention for about 20 years. The Court was informed that though the appeal was heard earlier, the hearing was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The State opposed the prayer for bail, submitting that that there was ample evidence on record implicating the appellants..However, the Court remained inclined to suspend the sentence imposed upon the appellants and enlarge them on bail, taking into account the infraction of their fundamental right to speedy justice under Article 21."Irrespective of the merits in the appeal, we are of the view inordinate incarceration of the appellants for about 20 years by itself is an infraction of their fundamental right to speedy justice under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.".The appellants were directed to be released on bail on furnishing a bond of ₹20,000 with two sureties, subject to a condition that they would appear before the magistrate once a month till their appeals were disposed..While acknowledging that even before the Calcutta High Court, a large number of appeals were pending where the appellants were in jail for a protracted period of time, the direction to expeditiously list such cases was passed..Advocates Rituparna De Ghose and Siddhartha Paul appeared for the appellants. The State was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Madhusudan Sur and Advocate Dipankar Pramanick. .[Read order]