BENGALURU: Observing that acts of Bench hunting/hopping/avoiding are on the rise, the Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the registry and district courts across the state to devise a mechanism using modern technology to curb the practice of playing fraud on the court and to verify every application filed for regular or anticipatory bail to find out if similar petitions for bail have been made before other courts.
Justice HP Sandesh directed the registry to make an effort to identify the number of petitions being filed and to make it clear that only the first petition is maintainable and not the subsequent ones. The judge also issued several directions, while rejecting an anticipatory bail petition filed by Nanjappa, a resident of Sadahalli, with a cost of Rs 1 lakh for trying to get bail by hook or crook and polluting the stream of justice.
The court directed the Director of the Prosecution to instruct all public prosecutors that they are duty bound to supply necessary information to the concerned court on pendency or the decision of the earlier bail application in the same offence after taking details from investigating officers (IO).
The registry and district courts are directed to insist on vakalat when a bail petition is filed seeking an anticipatory bail. The DGP has to immediately change the IO who has not taken any steps when the serious offence of impersonation, fraud and forgery is alleged, the court ordered.
To curb the kind of fraud committed by the accused and to identify the black sheep, the court directed the Registrar General to file a complaint before the Vidhana Soudha police to investigate whether Nanjappa instructed respective advocates to file bail pleas in Tumakuru and Mysuru and submit a repot within three months.
“If such persons are allowed to continue this type of practice of committing fraud on the court, the same will disrepute the institution and hence, the matter has to be investigated and it is high time to initiate appropriate action to curb the unethical practice,” the court observed.
What prompted HC to issue directions?
Nanjappa has been booked by the Chikkajala police for allegedly impersonating the original land owner by creating two fictitious persons to make wrongful gain of 2 acres 30 guntas of land at Navarathna Agrahara in Yelahanka taluk by collecting Rs 2 crore from the prospective buyer, out of the total sale consideration of Rs 5.83 crore. First, he filed an anticipatory bail plea before a trial court in Devanahalli which was rejected on December 12, 2021. Later, he moved the high court suppressing the fact of rejection. Meanwhile, he also filed similar pleas before trial courts in Mysuru and Tumakuru in January 2022.
When the matter was heard and order was reserved by the Mysuru court, he withdrew the petition before the Tumakuru court. But the Mysuru court denied bail in February 2022. Thereafter, he filed the present bail petition before the high court without disclosing the details of earlier petitions which were filed with fake addresses in Mysuru and Tumakuru.