'Victim Impact Assessment Report' should be considered before granting bail in serious cases: Allahabad High Court to Supreme Court

In bail matters where criminal appeal has been pending for a long time before Allahabad High Court, a 'victim impact assessment report' detailing the physical, social and mental impact of the crime on the victim should be taken into account for serious and grave offences, the High Court has told the Supreme Court..The High Court suggested that in cases where accused have served actual sentences or long tenure in jails, the victim impact assessment report can be prepared in consultation with the victim to examine how the grant of bail will impact the victim in the case. ."The rights of the victim and their family should be considered before granting bail. Priority should be given to hearing those criminal appeals where the accused has undergone more than half sentence in view of Section 436A of CrPC and the accused is in jail," the reply submitted by the High Court before the Supreme Court said..Importantly, the High Court suggested that in consonance with Supreme Court judgments, life sentence should be considered for "entire life" only and that if an accused of henious crime is released on bail after spending 10 to 15 years in jail then "he will never make an effort for deciding his appeal early.".The affidavit was filed after Supreme Court issued notice to the Allahabad High Court in a matter concerning broad parameters which can be considered for granting bail in long pending criminal appeals.The Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy had observed,"We want to lay down some norms only on the ground that appeals have not been heard for years. People can't be in custody for this long.".The High Court made it suggestions after taking into consideration the suggestions made by Additional Advocate General for UP Garima Prashad in consultation with UP standing counsel Vishnu Shankar Jain. .The High Court further submitted that for considering grant of bail in pending criminal appeals, certain conditions should he imposed requiring the "person to stay in a locality" or "restraining him to travel to certain areas" which may pose a threat to the victim or pamper with evidence. .It was also suggested that unless special benches are set up to decide such long pending criminal appeals, accused cannot be given benefit of bail in "mechanical manner".The High Court further submitted that a "different yardstick has to be evolved" for the grant of bail to accused in white collar or organized crimes as they are "habitual and hardened criminals" who commit crimes "in a planned and sophisticated manner.".Earlier, in a note submitted to the apex court, the UP government had suggested two broad criteria to be taken into account while considering bail pleas:- Total period of actual imprisonment undergone- Period of pendency of criminal appeal.Within such categories, it was suggested that the following considerations would be taken into account:- Heinous nature of crime- Past conduct and criminal history- Deliberate delay in pursuing appeal- Appellant/convict must approach the High Court at the first instance