Undertrials in jail for long should get bail even if offence serious: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court recently ruled that undertrial prisoners who have remained in jail for a long time should ordinarily be released on bail even if the crimes that they are accused of are serious. [Akash Satish Chandalia v. State of Maharashtra].Justice Bharati Dangre made the observation while granting bail to one Akash Chandalia accused of double murder, who had been in prison for the past 7.5 years.The judge observed that depriving a person of personal liberty without ensuring speedy trial was not in consonance with Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India."Deprivation of personal liberty, without ensuring speedy trial is not in consonance with article 21 of the Constitution. When a timely trial is not possible, the accused cannot be made to suffer further incarceration, if he has already undergone a significant period of the proposed sentence and in such circumstances, the court would ordinarily be obligated to enlarge him on bail, keeping aside the seriousness of the accusations faced by him," the judge said in her 7-page order.The bail plea before the Court was connected with a case against a gangster, Kisan Pardeshi. Pardeshi and his associates including Chandalia were booked by the police for kidnapping, assault, and murder of two men in July 2015. The accused had allegedly injured the men who succumbed to their injuries. The dead bodies of these men were later recovered..Chandalia pointed out in his bail application that two co-accused in the same case, Vikas Gaikwad and Yasmin Sayyed, had already been released on bail in 2022.Both these co-accused were released in view of the delay in trial, Justice Dangre observed. She further observed that there was no reason why Chandalia could also not be released on bail.Therefore, she allowed the bail application. "The seriousness of an offence and it's heinous nature may be one aspect, which deserve a consideration while exercising the discretion to release an accused on bail, but at the same time, the factor of long incarceration of an accused as under-trail prisoner also deserve its due weightage," the judge further observed while granting bail..Advocate Sana Raees Khan appeared for Chandalia.Additional public prosecutor SR Agarkar appeared for the State..[Read order]