NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India on Friday finally came to the rescue of an ailing accused lodged in a jail in Jharkhand, who despite getting bail seven days back, could not secure his release as one of the Judges who granted him bail could not sign the order before he left Delhi.
A Vacation Bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice L Nageswara Rao had on June 17 granted bail to accused Pushpendra Kumar Sinha, arrested in a criminal case after hearing the arguments at length from his counsel.
Singh is in custody in Jharkhand since November last year, but his bail order could not be signed by one of the Judges, L Nagewara Rao.
In its order, the court had asked Singh to surrender his passport before the concerned district court soon after his release.
However, the Supreme Court registry came to Singh’s rescue and informed the Judge about the pending order which needs his signature. Following this, the registry contacted the concerned Judge and managed to get the order signed by the Judge.
The court registry has also sent the order to jail authorities so that Pushpendra can be released from the jail at the earliest.
Earlier this week, Pushpendra’s counsel pleaded before the Vacation Bench to pass an order for his release as he was suffering from various ailments, but the Bench expressed its helplessness and said once the order was passed by a Bench, aother Bench could not take note of thethe matter to pass a similar order. The Bench had then advised the counsel to wait till June 29 when the Supreme Court would resume its functioning after the summer vacations.
“We can’t help, we can’t sign the order. All our sympathies are with you. Unfortunately, you have to wait till the vacation is over,” the Bench said.
According to the Supreme Court rules, it is a must for both the judges to sign the order failing which the order is not completed.