A major legal step forward has been taken when the Supreme Court of India reversed the cancellation of the appellants’ bail in a well-known Madhya Pradesh case. The case, which originated from Criminal Appeal No(s). of 2024, included the State of Madhya Pradesh challenging the bail amount given to Himanshu Sharma and other individuals.
The Supreme Court criticized a single judge of the Madhya Pradesh Bench of the High Court at Gwalior for canceling bail in a decision dated February 20, 2024. The court system was criticized in the ruling by Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, who described it as “totally uncalled for” and “tantamount to judicial impropriety.”
The case began in December 2023, when the appellants’ original bail was suspended by the High Court due to allegations of involvement in numerous illegal activities and national security concerns. However, the Supreme Court decided that these justifications were insufficient to cancel bail.
The Supreme Court underlined the contrast between the factors for granting bail and those for its cancellation, quoting the ruling in the case of Abdul Basit @ Raju and Others v. Mohd. Abdul Kadir Chaudhary and Others. The Court emphasized that cancellation of bail may only occur in certain situations, such as when there has been an abuse of liberty or when terms attached to the bail are broken, neither of which were present in this case.
Additionally, the bail cancellation application was listed before a separate Single Judge, a procedural error that the Supreme Court condemned. The judges made the following statement: “We do not understand how the application for cancellation of bail ended up before a single judge other than the knowledgeable single judge who had granted bail to the appellants.”
In addition, the Court emphasized that the appellants were already the subject of accusations, therefore extra research was not required. As a result, the Supreme Court declared the termination of bail to be “grossly illegal” and overturned it.
Case Name: Himanshu Sharma Vs State Of Madhya Pradesh.