The Supreme Court, taking cognizance of a disturbing order passed by the Odisha High Court, granted bail to a murder convict. The Supreme Court expressed serious concern over the High Court's approach in dismissing his appeal on the grounds of delay.
A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Ujjwal Bhuyan stated that the High Court should have adopted a pragmatic and sympathetic approach to the matter and condoned the delay to allow the convict to argue his appeal on the merits.
The Supreme Court noted that the convict had not been released on parole or furlough even once and stated that it would be futile to send the case back to the High Court and hear the criminal appeal on its merits.
The Supreme Court clarified that it passed this order because the petitioner had been serving his sentence for the past 22 years, had not been released even once during this period, and his conduct in prison had been found satisfactory.