Supreme Court frowns upon casual stay of bail orders ex-parte

The Supreme Court on Tuesday strongly advised against routinely stalling orders granting bail to an accused. [Parvinder Singh Khurana vs Directorate of Enforcement].A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said that courts should stay orders granting bail only in exceptional cases when a very strong prima facie case is made out and very rarely should be it be done without hearing the accused (ex-parte)."The prima facie case must be of a very high standard. An ex parte stay of the order granting bail, as a standard rule, should not be granted. The power to grant an exparte interim stay of an order granting bail has to be exercised in very rare and exceptional cases," the Court emphasised.As a normal rule, the ex-parte stay of bail orders should not be granted, the verdict authored by Justice Oka held."The said power can be exercised only in rare and very exceptional cases where the situation demands the passing of such drastic order."If such stay is granted, then the accused should be heard immediately by issuing a short notice instead of adjourning the case for a long period."Since the issue involved is of the accused's right to liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution, if an exparte stay is granted, by issuing a short notice to the accused, the Court must immediately hear him on the continuation of the stay," the Court said.It emphasised that all courts have to be sensitive about the fact that the right to life and personal liberty is the most important fundamental right."When the High Court or Sessions Court stays such an order, it amounts to taking away the liberty granted under the order of bail ... [they] should be very slow in granting drastic interim relief of stay of the order granting bail ... [such orders] should be passed in very rare cases. The reason is that when an undertrial is ordered to be released on bail, his liberty is restored, which cannot be easily taken away for the asking. The undertrial is not a convict," the Court observed..[GN Saibaba case] "Never heard of acquittal being suspended in special Saturday hearing": Kapil Sibal on Supreme Court order.Further, courts have to record reasons for passing any drastic stay orders and not pass the same as a matter of course, the top court said."Liberty granted to an accused under the order granting bail cannot be lightly and causally interfered with by mechanically granting an exparte order of stay of the bail order. Moreover, the Court must record specific reasons why it concluded that it was a very rare and exceptional case where a very drastic order of exparte interim stay was warranted," the Court ordered..The order was passed in appeals filed against certain Delhi High Court orders in connection with a money laundering case involving one Parvinder Singh Khurana.On June 17, 2023, a trial court in Delhi had granted bail to Khurana. However, this bail order was stayed the same month by Justice Amit Mahajan of the Delhi High Court after the ED filed an appeal.On March 18, 2024, Justice Mahajan released the matter from his board.On May 22, 2024, the matter came up before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the High Court who listed the matter for hearing on July 9. Khurana proceeded to move the Supreme Court for relief.On June 7, the top court expressed shock over the long pendency of the matter before the High Court and stayed the High Court's May 2022 order and restored the bail granted to Khurana.The Supreme Court had during the hearings grilled the central agency on why it was opposing the lifting of the one-year-long casual stay on bail.Today, it made the June 7 protection to the accused absolute while also making strict observations against staying bail ex-parte and then adjourning the case. Khurana's (accused) appeal was filed through advocate Madhusmita Bora, who appeared along with Senior Advocate Sudhanshu Shashikumar Choudhari and advocates Harsh Sethi, Anant Nigam, Dipankar Singh, Pawan Kishore Singh and Raghav Luthra. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju and Advocate Zoheb Hossain appeared for the ED..[Read Judgment]