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Sanjai Singh v. The State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 1095Decided 26 Nov 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 1448 of 2018
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

The appellant had been convicted and sentenced under Section 304B (dowry death) read with Section 498A IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1986. His appeal against that conviction (Criminal Appeal No. 1379 of 2008) was still pending before the Allahabad High Court, and separately, his application for bail had been rejected. Noting that the appellant had already spent around 14 years in jail, the Supreme Court had earlier (on 18.05.2018) granted him interim bail for six months while it considered his plea for regular bail during the pendency of his conviction appeal.

Decision Breakdown

This judgment is the final disposal of that specific bail appeal (converted from the Special Leave Petition into Criminal Appeal No. 1448 of 2018): it does not decide the merits of his underlying conviction, which remains pending before the High Court. After hearing the State's counsel and considering the appellant's lengthy period of incarceration (about 14 years), the Supreme Court directed that he be released on regular bail during the pendency of his conviction appeal before the High Court, subject to conditions to be imposed by the trial court, and disposed of the appeal on that basis.

Lesson Learnt

Prolonged pre-appeal incarceration (here, roughly 14 years while a conviction appeal remains undecided) is itself a strong ground for a convicted person to be released on bail pending the final outcome of that appeal, separate from and without pre-judging the merits of the conviction itself.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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