India
SC grants future bail to ex-WB minister Partha in ‘scam’ for teacher jobs – Times of India
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan has struck an innovative balance to address the classic dilemma in the administration of justice – while the accused cannot be kept in custody indefinitely as that would amount to punitive detention, the scale of justice cannot balance if it is wealthy and influential suspects obstruct the investigation or tamper with evidence.
SC order points to future bail as a new concept
As part of the reconciliation of the two imperatives, the Supreme Court said Partha Chatterjee could continue as MLA but would not be appointed to any public office during the pendency of the trial. The reluctance to hold public office is significant as it marks the crystallization of the legal reasoning first seen in SC’s dismay over Senthil Balaji’s reappointment as minister in Tamil Nadu soon after the top court ordered him had been released on bail in a money laundering case.
The order also pointed to the emergence of prospective bail as a new concept as it was only on Thursday that another bench, while upholding the bail plea of an accused in a money laundering case, ruled that he would not come out for the next two months. .
Chatterjee’s right as an accused and his bail plea must be juxtaposed with broader social harm caused by his alleged action of taking bribes to recruit unworthy candidates as teachers while depriving thousands of deserving candidates of their future, the court said. While passing the interim bail order, the court also quoted the statement of Arpita Mukherjee, a co-accused in the case, who feared threats to her life from Chatterjee.
Ahead of releasing Chatterjee on bail, the court said the court should decide on framing of charge sheet by December 31 and “fix a date within the second and third week of January for recording statements of such prosecution witnesses that are the most material or vulnerable. All these witnesses, especially those who have expressed fear of danger to their lives, will be questioned on these dates.”
Asking Chatterjee and his counsel to cooperate with the court in recording witness statements, the court said if the court framed charges against him, he would have the right to appeal against them. However, it stopped the appeals court from suspending the trial while the appeal against the charges was pending.
Fixing a cut-off date of January 31 for completion of recording of statements of vulnerable and important witnesses, the bench said while Chatterjee would be released on bail on February 1, his bail would be canceled if he was found to be directly testifying influenced or threatened. indirectly. SC asked him to appear before the court at every hearing without fail and attempts to postpone or delay the trial would lead to cancellation of bail.
Among the cases involving Balaji and Chatterjee, SC may have restored the convention followed till recently when politicians, even powerful ones, resigned as soon as they were indicted. This was followed across the spectrum — those who quit include BJP stalwart LK Advani and RJD chief Lalu Prasad — until others like Manish Sisodia, Anil Deshmukh, Satyendar Jain and Arvind Kejriwal, among others, continued to retain their respective offices. The consequences of the court redrawing the line could impact many who are in office while out on bail, as well as those who fancy a return.
