On Friday, the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction with the Bombay High Court for granting bail to a money laundering suspect after the Supreme Court had already reserved its judgment in a petition filed by the suspect seeking to dismiss the case.
Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that the suspect had not requested bail, yet the High Court proceeded to grant interim bail after reopening his petition for dismissal and addressing it privately.
The Court stated that the High Court had acted in gross impropriety by granting a prayer not made in pleadings. Hence, it proceeded to ask the High Court to reconsider the matter
“Propriety required the roster bench not to pass such an order. What is shocking is, when releasing the case, when admittedly there was no prayer for release on bail, the court granted bail for releasing the first respondent (accused). Matter is remitted to concerned bench to be heard on out-of-turn priority if bail is pressed. Order granting bail has not been set aside on merits, it is clarified,” the top court ordered.
The bench was considering an appeal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging a ruling made by the Bombay High Court in June 2023.
Originally, the accused had filed a writ petition seeking to dismiss the money laundering charges against them, with the judgment reserved on the matter.
However, subsequently, the case was reopened, and the accused was granted interim bail during private proceedings conducted by a bench comprising Justices SB Shukre and MM Sathaye.
In response, the ED appealed to the Supreme Court.
On December 8, 2023, the Supreme Court requested the Maharashtra government and the accused to provide their responses to the matter.
The central agency’s appeal has now been partly allowed.
The apex court directed the roster bench of the High Court to consider the prayer for bail as well as the criminal appeal on merits, afresh.
