Recently, Supreme Court of India refused to intervene in an Allahabad High Court order that denied a suspension of sentence or bail. The decision was based on the fact that the counsel for petitioner was unwilling to present arguments on the appeal against the conviction's merits in the High Court. Consequently, the Special Leave Petition was dismissed by the bench.

The matter was heard before the division Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti.

The Court in its judgement has observed :

“We have noticed this trend in several cases/orders, that are made subject matter of challenge before this Court. Learned counsel, it appears, press for hearing of the application for suspension of sentence/bail, but want to avoid arguing the main appeal on merits. Learned counsel should be willing and ready to argue the appeal on merits, especially in cases where the appellant/accused have suffered incarceration for some years”.
 The Court directed both the parties to be ready for arguments on the appeal.

Case Brief -

In the current case, the appeal brought before the High Court challenged a judgment rendered by the Sessions Judge, Varanasi, on January 9, 2018. The appellant, in accordance with the impugned judgment, was convicted and sentenced under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), receiving a life imprisonment sentence along with a fine of Rs. 1000/-. In case of failure to pay the fine, a one-year simple imprisonment term was mandated.

This marked the second bail application made before the High Court, with the petitioner seeking the suspension of the sentence and the grant of bail. The grounds for this application were primarily based on the duration of the petitioner's detention, which had spanned approximately 8 years and 3 months. It's important to note that the first bail application had been denied by an order issued on September 12, 2018.

Click here to Read/Download the Order