SC frowns upon adjournment of bail hearing 21 times, asks Allahabad HC to expedite case

Reiterating that cases of personal liberty ought to be decided expeditiously, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice to look into the bail plea of an accused whose matter got adjourned 21 times and was listed for hearing after two months.

“Time and again, we have been saying matters regarding personal liberty of citizens must be heard and decided expeditiously. Thus, we request the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court to handle the case expeditiously,” a bench led by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said.

“Needless to say that at least on the next date of hearing, the high court will take the matter and decide the bail application,” the top court said. If still aggrieved, the accused could return to the top court, the CJI said.

Noting that personal liberty related cases should be entertained by courts with utmost speed, the Supreme Court had on August 25 granted bail to an accused in a CBI case after it came to know that the Allahabad High Court adjourned his bail plea 43 times.

“Time and again we have observed that the matters relating to personal liberty should be entertained by the courts with utmost speed...In the matters of personal liberty, the high courts are not expected to keep the matter pending for such a long time and do nothing, except for adjourning from time to time,” a bench led by CJI Gavai had said, granting bail to accused Ramnath Mishra.

“In the present case the matter has been adjourned on 43 occasions. We do not appreciate the tendency of the high court to adjourn the matters pertaining to personal liberty of a citizen on such a large number of occasions,” the bench had said.

Earlier, the top court had granted bail to a co-accused on May 22, 2025 in view of the act that his bail plea was adjourned on 27 occasions by the high court.