MADURAI : The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has observed that though pendency of anticipatory bail pleas is not a bar to arrest an accused, the police in many cases have become inactive when such pleas are filed before the court.
Pronouncing a judgment in an anticipatory bail plea filed by two men, Justice S Vaidyanathan said, “Many police officials feel that if any anticipatory bail petition is brought to their attention, it will become a source of income generation for them as they can collect money and they can do underhand dealing, so that the accused is not arrested.”
“In many cases, the payment of hefty bribe has been brought to the attention of this court. Even many of the officials are seeking posting in places where they can mint money as bribe,” the judge said.
He further mentioned that “this observation is applicable to the corrupt and inefficient police officials. It is not made out of context and it can be witnessed during the present Deepavali season. This is only an example,” the judge said.
As for the present petition, the two petitioners, both daily wage labourers, said that they had filed the petition a second time, though the court earlier granted them relief. As they were unable to comply with the conditions imposed with respect to the execution of sureties with a lower court, the relief has expired.
The judge said in such cases, the petitioners could have filed seeking extension of time or modification in the court’s order given in the first anticipatory bail petition, instead of filing the second petition. But the HC Registry was reluctant to entertain such ‘extension of time’ petitions, but asked the petitioners to file only fresh anticipatory bail petitions.
“It is not the correct method (for Registry) for adoption, which needs rectification. Only the court should impose such other conditions,” he said, while directing the Registry to list the petition before a Single judge, who heard the first anticipatory bail plea, after getting appropriate orders from the administrative judge.