Orissa High Court rules no bail under Section 436-A of CrPC in life term offence

Source: newindianexpress.com

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has ruled that the benevolent provision under Section 436-A of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is not applicable for granting bail to an accused facing trial for an offence for which maximum punishment prescribed under law is imprisonment for life.

The provision under Section 436-A of CrPC is applicable to a person who has undergone detention for a period extending up to one-half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for the offence under the law. The single-judge bench of Justice SK Sahoo gave the ruling on Wednesday while considering the applicability of 436-A of CrPC in the bail application of Deepak Gupta, the prime accused facing trial in the Rs 1,500-crore Uliburu mining scam case.

Gupta, who has been in jail since September 2013, is facing trial for a charge under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) among others. The maximum punishment specified for the offence under the law is imprisonment for life.

The Supreme Court had held that life imprisonment means imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the convicted person’s natural life. Justice Sahoo said there is no provision in the IPC or CrPC whereby life imprisonment could be treated as either 14 years or 20 years without there being a formal remission by the appropriate Government.

“At this juncture, it cannot be speculated as to what sentence is likely to be awarded if the conviction is recorded under Section 409 of the IPC particularly in view of the huge loss caused to the Government exchequer for illegal and unauthorised excavation of iron ore. Therefore, even though the petitioner is in judicial custody for about six years, I am of the humble view that the provision under Section 436-A of CrPC is not applicable in the present case”, Justice Sahoo ruled while rejecting Gupta’s bail application.
Justice Sahoo, however, pulled up the trial court and the prosecution for the delay in trial of the case and gave Gupta the liberty to move for interim bail in the trial court if it fails to take effective steps to ensure the attendance of witnesses and make substantial progress with examination of material witnesses by December 2019.

“In the case in hand, the trial has not progressed much in spite of the earlier direction of this court due to lack of sincere efforts of the prosecution and the petitioner has remained in custody for about six years. And since, at least for the last two years, the petitioner has not contributed to the delay, the detention has virtually become pre-trial punishment to him”, Justice Sahoo observed in the judgment.

HC lawyers to boycott work

Cuttack: The High Court Bar Association will boycott court work on Friday as a token of protest to show solidarity with the members of  Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) bar associations of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in view of the abolition of OAT. The Central Government had issued a notification on the abolition of OAT on August 2 this year.