New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud has said that the trial court judges prefer to play safe by not granting bail on important criminal issues when it is looked at ‘with degree of suspicion’.
Underlining the need for a ‘‘sense of robust common sense’, Chandrachud said,”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,” PTI quoted the CJI as saying.
During the ‘11th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Centre on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination’, a questioner remarked,”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.”
CJI Chandrachud replied saying that the top 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.
“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,” the CJI added.
“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.
