Restrictive clauses in laws such as UAPA cannot prevent courts from granting bail: Supreme Court
A constitutional court must lean in favour of constitutionalism and the rule of law of which liberty is an intrinsic part, the bench said.
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Restrictive clauses in stringent penal statutes cannot prevent courts from granting bail if Article 21 of the Constitution has been infringed, the Supreme Court said on Thursday in a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Bar and Bench reported.
Article 21 pertains to the protection of life and personal liberty.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while granting bail to a man Sheikh Javed Iqbal from Nepal who has been accused of being involved in illegal trade of counterfeit Indian currency notes, PTI reported.
Iqbal was arrested in 2015 by the anti-terrorist squad near the Sonauli border between India and Nepal based on allegations that he was found with fake Indian currency notes totalling to around Rs 23 lakh to Rs 26 lakh, Bar and Bench reported.
Iqbal was subsequently charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
In the Supreme Court on Thursday, Iqbal’s counsel submitted that he had been in jail for more than eight years and that there was no possibility of the criminal trial concluding in the near future, PTI reported.
However, the Uttar Pradesh government, represented by Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad, said that the charges against Iqbal were serious and claimed that the accused was a flight risk as he is a foreign citizen.
The court, while pronouncing its decision...
