Supreme Court slams Bombay High Court for granting bail in quashing petition after it had reserved its judgment

The Supreme Court on Friday took exception to the Bombay High Court for releasing a money laundering accused on bail after it had reserved its judgment in a quashing petition filed by the accused..A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the accused had not made any prayer for bail and yet, the High Court proceeded to grant him interim bail after "de-reserving" his quashing plea and taking it up in chambers.The Court stated that the High Court had acted in gross impropriety by granting a prayer not made in pleadings. Hence, it proceeded to ask the High Court to reconsider the matter."The moment the Bench directed that the case was released and it should be heard afresh, the propriety required that the Bench should not have passed any order on merits, as the roster of the writ petition was with another Bench on that day. What is shocking is that after releasing the case, when admittedly there was no prayer made by the first respondent for grant of bail on 26.06.2023, the Bench granted bail for releasing the first respondent.""The appellants were not heard on the prayer for bail. Moreover, bail was granted in an offence under the PMLA without recording any reasons. Bail cannot be granted in such a case only to “strike a balance”. We have no manner of doubt that the impugned order to the extent to which bail was granted to the first respondent will have to be quashed and set aside. These are all matters of propriety", the bench observed.It was made clear that the roster notified by Chief Justices is binding on all judges not merely an empty formality. "No Bench can hear a case, unless as per the prevailing roster, the particular case is assigned to the Bench or that the case is specially assigned to the Bench by the Chief Justice. Therefore, we set aside that part of the impugned order by which bail was granted".The accused was given two weeks to surrender, and it was clarified that nothing has been expressed on merits as the High Court can be approached afresh for bail..The bench was hearing an appeal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against a June 2023 order passed by the Bombay High Court. The accused had initially filed a writ petition to quash the money laundering proceedings against him in which judgment had been reserved. However, the matter was later de-reserved, and the accused was granted interim bail in chamber proceedings by a bench of Justices SB Shukre and MM Sathaye.The ED moved the Supreme Court against the same.The top court had sought the response of the Maharashtra government and the accused in the matter on December 8, 2023..The central agency's appeal has now been partly allowed. The apex court directed the roster bench of the High Court to consider the prayer for bail as well as the criminal appeal on merits, afresh..Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave appeared for the accused, one Bablu Sonkar.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the ED..[Read judgment]