Right ‘message’ to police from Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court has reaffirmed a most important principle of criminal jurisprudence which says that bail is the norm and jail is the exception, in a case in which the norm had to be underlined with emphasis. It has also made a salutary assertion, which again was worth repeating, that the job of the court is to dispense justice and not to send any kind of message to the public. The court granted bail to an accused in a case related to the communal violence in Delhi earlier this year, rejecting the claim of the Delhi Police that granting bail to him would send an adverse message to society. Feroze Khan, a truck driver, is an accused in the case. According to the defence, there is no evidence that points to his involvement in the crime that he is charged with.

Justice Anup Bhambahani made it clear that bail cannot be denied if the court is convinced that there is need to keep the accused in judicial custody for the purpose of investigation and prosecution. He also said that ‘the prison is primarily for punishing convicts, not for detaining undertrials in order to send any ‘message’ to society.” The court also declared that it “will be loath to depriving a person of his liberty, in the court’s name, on the mere ipse dixit of the state, when it finds no substantial basis or reason for doing so’’. This is an important assertion, relevant and timely because there is reason to assume that the state is acting with malice through the Delhi Police against members of the minority community in cases relating to the violence, though most victims were from the community. At the same time, many leaders and workers of the BJP who are known to have incited or participated in the violence have been spared. Many people who participated in the anti-CAA protests have been arrested in connection with communal violence. A number of persons, including student leaders of Jamia Milia and JNU, were arrested recently. One Delhi court even remarked that the investigation “seems to be targeted only towards one end’’.

The Delhi High Court’s observations are important in the context of the investigation into the Delhi violence, and as a general rule and guideline for the police and the lower judiciary anywhere. Jails are overcrowded with undertrial prisoners and their rights are grossly violated. Justice is denied when they are locked up before conviction and even before trial.