Recently, the Supreme Court made it plain that it is the responsibility of the police to ensure that incarcerated criminal defendants are brought before the trial court. [Satendra Babu vs. Uttar Pradesh State]
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Prashant Kumar Mishra stated that the imprisoned accused cannot be held accountable for any such police negligence.
The Court made this observation in a case where the Uttar Pradesh police opposed the granting of parole to a man on the grounds that he failed to appear before the trial court, necessitating the issuance of appearance warrants.
The judges, however, noted that the defendant could not be held accountable for this error because he was in prison at the time.
“Because the petitioner is incarcerated, it was the responsibility of the police authorities to bring him before the Trial Court. “The petitioner cannot be held accountable for the police’s negligence,” stated the court.
The highest court was hearing an appeal by the defendant against the Allahabad High Court’s decision to deny his parole application.
The appellant was a government worker who oversaw a Jan Sewa Kendra and was accused of defrauding low-income investors.
The highest court noted that the defendant had been incarcerated for more than a year and that the indictment had been filed in this case.
In light of this, the court proceeded to permit the defendant’s release on bail.
Satender Babu was represented by attorneys Divyesh Pratap Singh, Shivangi Singh, Vikram Pratap Singh, Ranjana Singh, Amit Sangwan, Jai Inder, and Naman Bhardwaj.
The Uttar Pradesh administration was represented by attorneys Sanjay Kumar Tyagi, Aviral Saxena, Mangal Prasad, SK Tomar, Ajay Kumar Pandey, and Mayur Raj.
