Supreme Court stays HC's bail condition for Azam Khan

PTI

New Delhi, May 27

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Allahabad High Court’s bail condition imposed on Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan directing the District Magistrate of Rampur for taking possession of land attached to the Jauhar University campus in an alleged grabbing of enemy property case.

A vacation Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Bela M Trivedi said prima facie the Allahabad High Court’s bail condition imposed on Khan was disproportionate and sounds like a decree of a civil court.

The Bench, while referring to the May 10 order of the Allahabad High Court, said it was opined that bail was being granted to the petitioner (Khan) on the ground of age and his health condition, apart from the fact that in most of the cases in which the prosecution was initiated against him, he has been bailed out. “However, prima facie the conditions which have been imposed by the High Court for the grant of bail are disproportionate and have no reasonable link with the conditions which are required to be imposed to secure the presence of the accused and to ensure the fairness of the trial is not impeded,” the Bench said.

It said in the impugned order of the High Court, the single judge has observed that “the present order in the bail application may sound like a decree of a civil court dealing and deciding the title over the property”. The Bench said, “Yet, prima facie the High Court while imposing the conditions for grant of bail has exceeded the settled parameters governing the exercise of the jurisdiction under Section 439 CrPC.”