Courts should grant bail if there is chance of acquittal: SC

NEW DELHI: Underscoring that judicial process should not become itself a punishment for the accused, Supreme Court on Friday said that courts should "take the side of liberty" and grant bail if there was a chance of the accused getting acquitted in the case.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan upheld a Patna High Court order granting bail to a convict sentenced to a 20-year jail term in a Pocso case for raping a ten-year-old girl. It said that the high court had rightly used its discretionary power to release the convict on bail.

Challenging the HC order, advocate Akshay Amritanshu submitted that it was a very heinous offence and HC erred. The bench, however, pointed out that the HC order had noted that the girl's age was disputed and the medical evidence did not corroborate sexual intercourse. Hinting that the HC order indicated that the convict had a good case, the bench said bail should be granted in cases when there was chance of acquittal as it would take years before an appeal to be heard. "Courts should take the side of liberty in such cases if there is a chance of acquittal for an accused," SC said.