NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that it is a failure of the system that accused have to wait for 20-25 years before their cases are finally decided.
“A large number of accused, who could be entitled to an acquittal, languish for jail in 20-25 years. And if they come out, they would have already suffered,” a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said while hearing an appeal against rejection of a bail by the Allahabad High Court.
Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the accused, pointed out that there is no possibility of the appeal being finally decided anytime in the near future and hence it would be unjust if the accused remains incarcerated for a long period in these circumstances.
The bench said that it knew of the fact that the Allahabad High Court has been hearing appeals which are 25 years old “What do we do? That’s the reality. This high court has been hearing very, very old matters. But can we release all the accused only since their appeals are pending for a long time? We can’t even do that,” the bench added.
Later, it sought views of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate R S Sodhi as to how to come over this situation.