Judges should use a sense of robust common sense in bail petitions: CJI D Y Chandrachud
Bengaluru (PTI): Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Sunday said the trial judges prefer playing safe by not granting bail on important issues of crime when it is looked at with a degree of suspicion.
The Chief Justice underlined the need for a ‘sense of robust common sense’ to look at the nitty-gritty of each case.
"People who should be getting bail in the trial courts and not getting it there, as a result of which, they have to invariably move the high courts. People who should be getting bail in the high courts will not necessarily get it, as a result of which, they have to move to the Supreme Court. This delay compounds the problem of those who are facing arbitrary arrests," Justice Chandrachud said.
He was replying to a question at the end of a keynote address during the ‘11th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Centre on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination'. The question was on the arbitrary arrests.
The questioner said we seem to live in a society where one acts first and seeks forgiveness later. This has become particularly true for public authorities acting in a politically motivated manner by detaining activists, academics, journalists and even politicians, including the chief ministers of opposition parties, he said.
According to him, all of these actions are taken with deep trust in the face of justice coming very slowly.
In reply, Justice Chandrachud said the Supreme Court has been constantly trying to convey that part of the reason for it is that there is an inherent distrust in the institutions within the country.
"I think it's important that we learn to trust people who may be in a hierarchical legal system, like much below, which are the trial courts. We have to encourage trial courts to be more receptive to the need for accommodating concerns of people who are seeking liberty," the CJI said.
"Unfortunately, the problem today is this, that we look at any grant of relief by trial judges with a degree of suspicion. That means that the trial judges increasingly are playing it safe, not granting bail on important issues of serious crimes," he explained.
According to the CJI, judges have to look at the nitty gritties and see the fine prints of each case.
"You (judges) have to have a sense of robust common sense. Now, unless we, therefore, separate the grains from the chaff in criminal jurisprudence, it's very unlikely that we will have just solutions and to allow for decision makers to separate the grain from the chaff, it's important that we also place a great deal of trust," Justice Chandrachud noted.
"I think that's my concern that you can’t render courts as in the hierarchy as you go up dysfunctional, just by the number of very small cases that are placed before us".
According to him, most of the cases should not have come to the Supreme Court at all.
"The reason why we are prioritising bail is to send this message across the nation that those at the most incipient levels of the decision-making process have to do their duties without this feeling that. I've been disgusted that my career will be on the line," the CJI underlined.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
