The Supreme Court has empowered High Courts to proceed against persons who stand surety for an accused who disappear or go underground after getting bail or suspension of sentence. The SC passed the order in a bid to arrest the alarming trend in criminal cases where the accused are able to circumvent and escape the sentence awarded to them by filing an appeal, securing bail or an exemption from surrender, and then fail to appear in court. The Court felt that such a trend not only frustrated the process of law but rendered the policy of sentencing meaningless by abusing the legal remedy available to an accused.
“The criminal justice system is being held to ransom by convicts who have developed the devious and dishonest practice of escaping punishment or sentence by filing appeals, obtaining bail or suspension of sentence and thereafter disappearing beyond the reach of the arms of law,” said a bench of Justices TS Thakur and Vikramajit Sen.
As a way out, the bench directed the High Courts to “immediately proceed against the persons who stood surety at the time when the convict was granted bail”. By doing so, the Court wished this may lead to discovery and production in Court. But even if this exercise failed, the High Court “is empowered to dismiss the appeal,” the SC verdict said.
On one hand, where the courts are confronted to defend the right of the accused, the bench felt that somewhere there was an exaggeration of this right. “We are convinced that the interest of society at large is being repeatedly sacrificed for the exaggerated, if not misplaced concern, for what is fashionably termed as human rights of convicts,” said Justice Sen.
This contributed to woeful success rate of prosecution in the country. With only 20 per cent of cases ending up successfully in prosecution, among this percentage too, if convicts can emasculate punishment by circumventing sentence, the bench sought to block this loophole as it was of the view, “If even the niggard numbers of convicts are permitted to circumvent their sentences, crime is certain to envelop society.”