Observing that granting bail must not be made practically un-executable or expensive, the Bombay High Court ordered the release of a man and his accomplices, booked in more than a dozen of separate dacoity and fraud cases. The HC considered the fact that these men were granted bail by lower courts in January and February but they could not execute the bail owing to financial issues.
A bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav also noted the fact that all these men led by Benjiman Eragadinnella were originally from Andhra Pradesh.
Notably, the lower courts from Kalyan, which had granted bail to these men, had ordered them to furnish bail bonds over a lakh rupees, which they could not arrange.
"It is true that the liberty of an individual cannot be allowed to outweigh the security and safety of the society at large. However, it would be necessary to adopt a humanitarian approach," Justice Jadhav observed.
The court while referring to a Supreme Court order, said that social justice is the signature tune of the constitution and the little man in peril of loosing his liberty is the consumer of social justice.
"It is true that the grant of bail should not be made possibly inconvenient, expensive and un-executable," Justice Jadhav held.
"Another aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is that the applicants are ready to furnish the local sureties although they are from Andhra Pradesh and in view of this, it would not be proper to allow further incarceration of the applicants," Justice Jadhav noted.
"It would be necessary to see that they do not flee from justice and therefore, applicants can be directed to mark their presence before the respective police stations till the stage of framing of charge. The orders are being modified to strike the balance between the rights of the individuals and social justice," Justice Jadhav observed.
Justice Jadhav accordingly ordered release of these men on furnishing a surety of nearly seventy thousand rupees for all the cases. The judge also ordered them to attend the six police stations, each a day, from Monday to Saturday.
