Former Supreme Court Justice Madan Lokur suggested at a seminar organised by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms, in collaboration with The Wire and LiveLaw that in the current times the perception is that “when the case goes before the particular bench, this is going to be the result”.
Referring to former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student and activist Umar Khalid withdrawing his bail plea in the Supreme Court in February in connection with the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case, he said that it was done as “the lawyer knew the fate of that case.”
“You have had the case of Umar Khalid asking for bail, which has not been listed for a long time. There have been 13 adjournments. Ultimately, the lawyer said that we wanted to withdraw the case because they knew what the result was going to be. They knew the fate of that case,” he said.
Further, he spoke about the cases of Arnab Goswami and G.N. Saibaba, adding that the issue is when a matter is listed and where.
“You would have a situation where somebody, a journalist, wants bail, the case is listed the same day maybe in the evening…somebody has been granted bail, the prosecution says grant of bail by the High Court is wrong…so a Special Bench sits on a Saturday and stays that order, which is very very unusual, so that the person does not come out of jail. Why should that happen?”
Besides Khalid’s case, Justice Lokur also spoke about Article 370 and electoral bonds cases that were not listed for years.
