A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by CJI K G Balakrishnan has unanimously ruled in favour of an Additional District and Sessions Judge, Ramesh Chander Singh, who had been penalised by the Allahabad High Court for granting bail to a murder accused.

Currently posted in Ghaziabad, Singh had been accused of granting bail to Ram Pal in a 1995 murder “in utter disregard of judicial norms and on insufficient grounds and based on extraneous considerations with oblique motive”.

In his order, Singh had cited the failing health of Pal’s father, the fact that he was a student with no previous criminal record and that the tehsildar who recorded the victim’s dying statement was his own relative as grounds for granting bail.

Setting aside both the orders of the HC, including withholding Singh’s two increments and demoting him, the SC stated: “If the accused (Ram Pal) were to be denied bail in these circumstances it would have been a travesty of justice... We fail to understand as to how the HC arrived at a decision to initiate disciplinary proceedings (against Singh) solely based on the complaint, the contents of which were not believed to be true by the HC.”

The SC bench further stated: “If any disciplinary proceeding is initiated against the officer for passing such an order it would adversely affect the morale of subordinate judiciary and no officer would be able to exercise this power freely and independently.”

After Singh granted bail to Ram Pal over the murder of two people in Jhansi in 1995, the brother of one of the deceased had gone to the Allahabad HC claiming that he believed the ADJ had received Rs 80,000 in return. A judge found a prima facie case against Singh, and the Allahabad HC initiated a departmental inquiry.

... contd.