Dispose Bail Applications Within 3-6 Months, SC Orders Courts; 'Can't Keep Them Pending'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed high courts and trial courts to dispose bail and anticipatory bail applications within three to six months, and not keep them pending for years.

“High Courts as well as subordinate courts must necessarily take bail and anticipatory bail applications for disposal within a short span of time, preferably within 3 to 6 months,” a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said.

Observing that such applications directly concern the right to personal liberty, the top court said they can’t be left pending for years while the applicants continue to remain under uncertainty.

“Applications concerning personal liberty cannot be kept pending for years,” the bench said.

A prolonged delay in the disposal of bail applications not only goes against the core of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it also amounts to a denial of justice that is contrary to the constitutional ethos, the judges pointed out.

The court said that all bail and anticipatory bail applications must be decided expeditiously on their own merits and not be allowed to languish.

The Supreme Court pulled up the Bombay High Court for keeping bail petitions of applicants accused of forgery and illegal transfer of land for six years.

After the Bombay High Court rejected anticipatory bail pleas of three accused in the case, two of the accused filed an appeal against the order in the apex court.

“We have deprecated this practice,” the Supreme Court bench said about the case, in which an anticipatory bail application was filed in 2019 but kept pending in Bombay HC till 2025.