New Delhi, July 22 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Friday criticized the new trend where high courts have made irrelevant observations, not connected with a case before them, and going overboard by imposing pointless conditions in bail matters. A bench, headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, said it is disturbed by such orders passed by high courts and cited directions passed by a separate bench setting aside an order, similar in nature.
The bench, also comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala, set aside the Allahabad High Court’s bail condition to seal the premises of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University at Rampur while granting bail to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. He is one of the members of the board of trustees of the university. Expressing disappointment with the new trend, the top court said the high courts are exceeding their authority to delve into issues that are not relevant to the determination of the bail pleas. “This is yet another matter where we find the high court has referred to matters which are unrelated to consideration of prayer for bail in respect of concerned crime,” noted the bench.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of Khan in the apex court. After hearing Sibal’s arguments, the top court said the high court ought to have dealt with only those aspects which were related to bail and not ventured into unrelated issues. The top court noted that if sealing proceedings were to take place, then it should have been independent of the observations made by the high court. “You take action under other law, not under the high court order,” the bench told Uttar Pradesh’s counsel. Only on July 18, the Supreme Court stayed.
