Expressing its displeasure at the inordinate delay, the Supreme Court has ordered for an expeditious decision on the bail plea of the juvenile accused in the Gurugram Ryan International School murder case.
The delinquent, a class 11 student of the same school, has been charged by the CBI with killing the eight-year-old victim in the school precincts in September 2017.
On Tuesday, a bench headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman asked the Punjab and Haryana High Court to take up the juvenile's bail plea without further delay and decide it quickly.
It noted that the bench has been making it clear in its orders since November 2018 that the juvenile's bail plea requires to be heard notwithstanding pendency of any other matter in the top court.
The judge observed the court was "surprised" that even after it was made absolutely clear that the Punjab and Haryana High Court should take up the bail plea and decide it expeditiously, the matter was still pending there.
"Given the orders that have been passed by this Court starting from 19.11.2018, we are a little surprised that the bail application is itself not yet taken up and disposed of," stated the court order.
It accepted the submissions by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for the father of the juvenile, that keeping a bail petition pending without any specific reason is a denial of his rights, particularly in view of the fact that the delinquent has been lodged in an observation home for 2.5 years now.
The bench then directed as: "Having heard Mr Sidharth Luthra, learned Senior Advocate for sometime and having perused the High Court orders, including the impugned order, we request the High Court to take up the bail application and dispose of the same at the earliest."
The petition, filed in the Supreme Court through advocate Supriya Juneja, had appealed against the refusal to grant an early hearing to the juvenile's bail plea despite two categorical clarifications by the apex court.
The plea pointed out that the delinquent, who was 16 years and 5 months at the time of alleged incident, has been incarcerated for the last 2.5 years without any likelihood of the trial commencing due to the status quo granted by the Supreme Court.
The bail application has also been pending before the high court for the last 1.5 years and that "pendency of the bail application for such a long period of time, without any due cause, is a complete violation of the petitioner’s right to life and liberty”.
In December 201, a juvenile justice board had declared the delinquent to be mentally and physiologically fit to be tried as an adult, against which his father filed an appeal.
The Supreme Court is currently seized of his petition as to whether he has to be tried as an adult with full responsibility of the murder, or as a juvenile who can be kept in an observation home for a maximum period of three years. The juvenile has already spent 2.5 years in an observation home since his arrest in the case.
The petition further cited the Covid-19 pandemic to state that proper social distancing measures cannot be complied with at Karnal's observation home where more than 100 juveniles have been housed even though the capacity is for 50.
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