CHENNAI: Deprecating the practice of some lower court judges stipulating ‘odd’ conditions for bail, the Madras High Court has said that such ‘obnoxious’ conditions should be avoided.
It would amount to punishing the person before trial. It is also an onslaught on human rights and human sentiments, observed Justice P Devadass on Wednesday.
Recenly, while granting bail to the accused, a lower court in Ariyalur directed the accused to cut ‘seemai karuvelam’ trees for 20 days and the other in Mettupalayam to fill troughs in the foothills with water to quench the thirst of animals for a month. A third court had directed the accused to do social service in schools and hospitals.
The judge made the observations when the counsel for a bail petitioner in a murder case requested him not to impose any such stringent condition on his client.
Till a person is convicted, he is presumed to be innocent and except the word ‘accused’, he is a normal person. Even a convicted person cannot be denuded of his basic rights. Courts are under law and not above law.
They are not extra-constitutional authorities which had suddenly descended from the heaven. In a democratic country based on written Constitution, the courts, exercising the sovereign powers of the State, must do so in accordance with law. The judges should be cautious as well as conscious while delivering justice. “This kind of odd conditions will be counter-productive. The would-be criminals will be emboldened to commit crimes, cut karuvelam trees, come out on bail from jail and go scott-free,” the judge added.