press trust of india
New Delhi, Nov 24: The Supreme Court Thursday set aside the order of the Patna High Court granting bail to suspended RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, accused of raping a minor girl, saying that there is a “possibility of interdicting” fair trial by him if released.
“In a given case, if it is found that there is a possibility of interdicting fair trial by the accused if released on bail, this public interest of fair trial would outweigh the personal interest of the accused while undertaking the task of balancing the liberty of the accused on the one hand and interest of the society to have a fairtrial on the other hand.”
“When the witnesses are not able to depose correctly in the court of law, it results in low rate of conviction and many times even hardened criminals escape conviction. It shakes public confidence in the criminal justice delivery system,” a bench of Justices A K Sikri and A M Sapre said.
The court said that there is need to ensure that criminal justice delivery system works “efficiently”, “smoothly” and in a “fair manner” and it has to be given prime importance in such situations.
“For the foregoing reasons, we allow this appeal thereby setting aside the order of the high court. In case the respondent (Yadav) is already released, he shall surrender and/or taken into custody forthwith. In case he is still in jail, he will continue to remain in jail as a consequence of this judgement,” the bench said.
It noted that the prosecutrix has already been examined in the trial court, but a few other material witnesses, including father and sister of the prosecutrix, are yet to be examined.
“As per the records, threats were extended to the prosecutrix as well as her family members. Therefore, we feel that the high court should not have granted bail to the respondent (Yadav) ignoring all the material and substantial aspects pointed out by us, which were the relevant considerations,” the court said.
The bench said that the prime consideration is to protect the fair trial and ensure that justice is done which can be done, only if witnesses depose fearlessly and freely.
“This may happen only if the witnesses are able to depose without fear, freely and truthfully and this court is convinced that in the present case, that can be ensured only if the respondent is not enlarged on bail,” it said, adding that it was not a fit case for grant of bail at this stage and “grave error” was committed by the high court. The apex court had November 8 directed Yadav to surrender before a trial court in Bihar after suspending the high court order granting bail to him for two weeks to enable the alleged rape victim to depose before the court.
