Judges should use common sense in bail petitions: CJI

CJI Justice DY Chandrachud. Pic/PTI

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Sunday said the trial judges prefer playing safe by not granting bail on important issues of crime when it is looked at with a degree of suspicion. The Chief Justice underlined the need for a ‘sense of robust common sense' to look at the nitty-gritty of each case.

"People who should be getting bail in the trial courts and not getting it there, as a result of which, they have to invariably move the high courts. People who should be getting bail in the high courts will not necessarily get it, as a result of which, they have to move to the Supreme Court. This delay compounds the problem of those who are facing arbitrary arrests," Justice Chandrachud said.

He was replying to a question at the end of a keynote address during the ‘11th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Centre on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination'. The question was on the arbitrary arrests. The questioner said we seem to live in a society where one acts first and seeks forgiveness later.

This has become particularly true for public authorities acting in a politically motivated manner by detaining activists, academics, journalists and even politicians, including the chief ministers of opposition parties, he said. According to him, all of these actions are taken with deep trust in the face of justice coming very slowly.

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