Legal Reference Library

When the seriousness of the offence is such, the mere fact that he was in jail for however long time should not be the concern of the Courts, the Supreme Court  in The State Of Bihar vs Amit Kumar @ Bacha Rai has said, while holding that bail cannot be granted on the sole ground that accused was in custody for a long time. A bench comprising Justice NV Ramana and Justice Prafulla C Pant set aside a Patna High Court order, which had granted bail to Bihar toppers’ scam accused Amit Kumar @ Bacha Rai. In a brief order, the high court, while granting bail, relied on the fact that the accused has already been in custody for a long time.

The Gujarat High Court has dismissed the writ application of a former branch manager of a Gramin Bank in Manishkumar Arjanbhai Patel v. Saurashtra Gramin Bank & two ors., who was removed from his service on the account of charges of misconduct and negligence in discharging his duties, stating that a delay, by itself, would not vitiate departmental inquiry as sometimes charges may be so serious that the issue of delay pales into insignificance. The decision taken by the court through Justice JB Pardiwala was arrived at after careful examination of the facts and after being assured that the procedure of inquiry was carried out in accordance with law. In this case, 21 charges were alleged against petitioner MA Patel while he was serving as the branch manager of Gramin Bank, Jamnagar. A departmental inquiry was instituted against him the result of which was that all the charges were established by the inquiry officer. The disciplinary authority, i.e. chairman, Jamnagar Rajkot Gra...