Allahabad HC Lays Down Guidelines For Bail Under SC/ST Act

OVERVIEW

The Allahabad High Court on 11th January listed directions and guidelines for bail appeal under the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, emphasising on timely application and procedure of the pleas.

The guidelines required the State to serve notice of bail of proceedings within prescribed timelines, and for bail applications to be placed for hearing in Court within a week of the Government being issued notice.

QUESTIONS BEFORE THE COURT

The primary questions raised before the Court were:

What is the agency and mode for service of notice of bail applications/bail appeal upon the victim under the SC/ST Act?

What is the time period for maturation of a bail application/bail appeal before the High Court which implements the mandate of the Act and agrees with the requirements of constitutional liberties?

PROVISIONS UNDER THE ACT

Sec. 15 of the SC/ST Act provides for the grant of bail and rights of victim and witnesses. Sec. 15 (A) (3) and (5) state the following:

(3) A victim or his dependent shall have the right to reasonable, accurate, and timely notice of any Court proceeding including any bail proceeding and the Special Public Prosecutor or the State Government shall inform the victim about any proceedings under this Act.

(5) A victim or his dependent shall be entitled to be heard at any proceeding under this Act in respect of bail, discharge, release, parole, conviction or sentence of an accused or any connected proceedings or arguments and file written submission on conviction, acquittal or sentencing.

In relation to sec. 15 (3) of the Act, Justice Ajay Bhanot observed that ‘direct responsibility for service of bail notice upon the victim under the Act is upon the State’ and that the Act ‘does not contemplate sending of bail notice to the victim by the Court.’ Further, it added that the accused cannot be charged with penalty for the State’s default. The bench issued the following procedural directions for strict compliance regarding the bail applications under the Act:

Notice of bail application/bail appeal shall be served upon the Government Advocate before 12 pm of any working day.
State Government ought to ensure that the notice of application/appeal is served to the victim within 96 hours after the receipt of the said notice. In its course of order, as per the Act, the State Government or Special Public Prosecutor is appointed as the ‘sole agency with the exclusive statutory duty to inform the victim about the bail proceedings.’

The victim will be entitled to 72 hours of time after the receipt of notice of the bail application.

The bail application/bail appeal under the said Act is to be placed before the Court immediately after the expiry of 168 hours/7 days from the time of service of notice upon the Government Advocate, excluding exceptional circumstances declared by the Court.

The report of service of notice of bail application/bail appeal shall be submitted by the State authority before the court declaring due compliance of the provisions of sec. 15 (3) of the Act.

The applicant or his/her counsel shall give 96 hours of notice to the Government Advocate stating the exact date on the appeal intended to be moved. The State shall thereafter cause such notice to be served again upon the victim to enable him/her to gain ‘accurate notice of the proposed bail application.’

Accordingly, the State government is supposed to ensure that requisite infrastructure and trained personnel in the High Court (Office of Government Advocate), as well as in police stations are available to process the traffic of notices by e-mail.
The bail appeal may be served upon the /government Advocate by e-mail.

The SSP/DCP/SP of the respective district shall be the nodal officer, who would be appointed to supervise the staff charged with the duty of actually serving the notice upon the victim.

The time limit for effecting service of the notice of bail application/bail appeal upon Government Advocate by e-mail shall be 72 hours and not 96.

The bail application in such cases shall be placed before the Court in 144 hours (6 days)

The option of e-filing of notice of bail applications/bail under the said Act shall be made effective May 1, 2021 onwards.

CONCLUSION

The bench ordered the Director General of Police to create a State Level Committee headed by Officer not below than the rank of Additional Director General of Police.

The Committee has been directed to submit the annual report to the State Government and suggest appropriate recommendations. It has also been directed to review the activity of the aforementioned guidelines, studying the possibility of further reducing the time period of notice of bail appeals/bail applications upon the victims, and further, supervise over the action taken against the concerned officials for violating the directions.