NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court said Thursday it may cancel the bail granted to former Jharkhand minister Yogendra Sao and his MLA wife Nirmala Devi, accused in rioting cases in 2016, for violating conditions imposed by it.
The top court asked the couple to argue on the next date of hearing as to why the bail granted to them in riot cases cannot be cancelled.
A bench of justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said the couple will not be granted any more adjournment in the case and listed the matter for further hearing on January 15.
"We will cancel the bail, if it is found that you have violated the bail conditions. Come prepared next time to argue on the point why your bail shall not be cancelled," the bench told the counsel for Sao and Barkagaon MLA Devi.
At the outset, advocate Tapesh Kumar Singh, appearing for the Jharkhand government said both the accused have been grossly violating the bail conditions imposed by the apex court in its order on December 15 last year.
He said in eleven cases registered against Sao charges were not framed by the trial judge as he did not appear before the court despite directions from the top court.
Singh said similarly, Devi also did not appear before the trial judge in four cases where charges were to be framed against her.
"We have submitted a tabular chart to show that since December 15, 2017, after the couple were granted bail, till August, 2018, they (Sao and Devi) have taken 24 flights to Delhi from Ranchi and to other places," he said, adding that they have hardly stayed at Bhopal for one month despite directions from the court.
The state government had said Sao and his wife Devi, were asked by the top court to stay in Bhopal and not enter Jharkhand except for attending court proceedings as one of the bail condition.
Counsel representing Sao and Devi said maybe some other person have booked their ticket and argued that there was no violation of bail conditions.
The government in its application had said that both of them had been staying in Jharkhand and were not attending court proceedings.
On October 29, the apex court had sought a response from Sao and Devi after the state government sought cancellation of their bail on the ground that they had violated bail conditions.
The Jharkhand government had said several criminal cases were pending against the couple.
The cases are at various stages, including at the stage of framing of charges, where their presence is needed, it had said.
The application said despite the apex court's direction that they will attend court proceedings, they have not been attending it and as a result, cases are not moving forward.
The government has annexed their call details records to show that the Sao and Devi had violated the bail conditions.
The apex court had earlier termed as "some kind of joke" the charge framing order passed by a court in Jharkhand through instant messaging application WhatsApp.
It wondered how this kind of a "joke" was allowed to happen in a court of law in India.
A lower judge in Hazaribagh district had put the accused on trial by pronouncing the order framing charges against them through a 'WhatsApp' call.
Both the Sao and Devi, had challenged the order in apex court saying that the trial judge had on April 19 this year framed charges against them through a 'WhatsApp' call despite they raising objections to it.
The apex court took serious note of it and observed that this process cannot be allowed, and administration of justice cannot be allowed to be brought into disrepute.
The couple had sought transfer of their cases from Hazaribagh to New Delhi.
Both Devi and Sao were accused in the case relating to violent clashes between villagers and police in 2016 in which four persons were killed.
Sao had become a minister in the Hemant Soren government in August 2013.
Devi a Congress MLA had led an agitation against NTPC authorities for their alleged attempt to forcefully evacuate villagers from Barkagaon without giving them due compensation or rehabilitation, According to police.