July 17, 2026

It's Back To Academy For Errant UP Sessions Court Judge

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-05-04 12:18:10

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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The Supreme Court has finally done what it had repeatedly threatened to do in the recent past. Piqued at trial court judges not adhering to its orders and guidelines regarding bail, it had said that it will send such judicial officers for retraining in the judicial academy. Now it has carried out this threat for a sessions court judge in UP. It has ordered the Allahabad HC to stop giving judicial work to the concerned judge and send him for retraining. This extraordinary decision on part of the Supreme Court is likely to have the intended effect - trial court judges will now apply their minds, study Supreme Court orders and guidelines and will grant bail when it due instead of routinely rejecting bail applications, even for minor crimes.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that bail must be granted if certain conditions are fulfilled. It has detailed these conditions. But a majority of trial court judges do not follow these orders and guidelines and routinely reject bail applications, resulting in unnecessary litigation and further load on the judicial system. The Supreme Court has done well to take this step.

But another, more serious, affair needs the urgent attention of the court. It must now turn its attention on public prosecutors who oppose bail applications despite its comprehensive 2022 guidelines in less severe crimes which carry a punishment of less than 7 years in jail which say that bail must be granted if the accused is cooperating. It must also train its lens on investigating agencies that arrest an accused in a less severe case (as defined above) on filing the chargesheet even though they are cooperating and were not arrested during the probe. Unnecessary arrests and placing hurdles in the bail process must not also be tolerated. The Supreme Court has repeatedly warned public prosecutors and investigating agencies not to go against its 2022 guidelines. Now it must also act against them.