NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said that the fundamental right to speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution is overarching and sacrosanct and restrictive statutory provisions in a penal law
would not prevent a constitutional court to grant bail to an accused if such a right has been infringed.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan granted bail to Sheikh Javed Iqbal alias Ashfaq Ansari alias Javed Ansari.
The petitioner, a Nepalese citizen, arrested on February 23, 2015 from Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border with counterfeit currency notes of over Rs 26 lakh.
The court rejected a contention by the Uttar Pradesh government, which opposed the bail as stringent charges under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act were invoked against him.
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His counsel M S Khan highlighted the petitioner has been in jail for nine years, only two witnesses have been examined. Further, there is no possibility of trial coming to end in near future, he said.
In its decision, the court said, "When a trial gets prolonged, it is not open to the prosecution to oppose bail of the accused-undertrial on the ground that the charges are very serious. Bail cannot be denied only on the ground that the charges are very serious though there is no end in sight for the trial to conclude."
The bench emphasised this court in a catena of judgments has held that an accused or an undertrial has a fundamental right to speedy trial which is traceable to Article 21 of the Constitution.
"If the alleged offence is a serious one, it is all the more necessary for the prosecution to ensure that the trial is concluded expeditiously," it said
The bench said even in the case of interpretation of a penal statute, howsoever stringent it may be, a constitutional court has to lean in favour of constitutionalism and the rule of law of which liberty is an intrinsic part.
"In the given facts of a particular case, a constitutional court may decline to grant bail. But it would be very wrong to say that under a particular statute, bail cannot be granted. It would run counter to the very grain of our constitutional jurisprudence," the bench said.
The court finally laid down that the constitutional court cannot be restrained from granting bail to an accused on account of restrictive statutory provisions in a penal statute if it finds that the right of the accused-undertrial under Article 21 of the Constitution of India has been infringed. In that event, such statutory restrictions would not come in the way, the bench said.
