The Supreme Court has granted bail to a murder accused who spent more than nine years in custody without the trial making meaningful progress, observing that prolonged incarceration caused by judicial delay cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.
A bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale exercised its powers under Article 32 of the Constitution to order the release of Liakat Ali, who had been in custody for over nine years and two months in connection with charges under Sections 302, 382 and 201 read with Section 34 of the Ranbir Penal Code.
The Court noted that the trial had moved at a painfully slow pace. Out of 30 prosecution witnesses, only 12 had been examined. Despite an earlier bail application having reached finality in 2024, there had been little meaningful progress in the proceedings thereafter.
The bench made it clear that once an accused remains behind bars, the responsibility for preventing an endless trial does not rest on the prisoner alone.
“When the accused is under incarceration, it is incumbent upon the Court and the prosecuting agency to expedite the conduct of the trial,” the Court observed.
The case, the Court noted, involved a petitioner who was a teenager when the alleged offence took place. He had already spent more than nine years in custody, with the Court finding no fault on his part for the delay. The prosecution case was also based on circumstantial evidence.
At the pace at which the trial was proceeding, the Court said, the proceedings were likely to continue for a considerable period.
The prolonged delay and continued incarceration, the bench observed, had “shocked our judicial conscience.”
The State argued that the accused could approach the competent court with a fresh bail application and that there was no need for the Supreme Court to intervene under Article 32. The Court, however, held that the exceptional circumstances justified its intervention.
Reiterating established principles of criminal justice, the bench stressed that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty and that bail remains the general rule, while imprisonment before conviction should be the exception.
The Supreme Court accordingly allowed the petition and directed that Liakat Ali be released on bail on conditions to be fixed by the trial court.
