Volume of Pages of Bail Petition Is No Ground to Deny Liberty: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has made it clear that bail applications cannot be rejected only because they are lengthy or contain many pages. The Court said that such an approach goes against basic principles of justice and fairness.

The observation came while hearing a case where a trial court had refused bail to an accused in a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The trial court dismissed the bail plea simply because it ran into nearly 500 pages, without examining its merits.

Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma strongly criticised this reasoning. The Court held that bail pleas must be decided based on their substance, not on their form or volume. The liberty of an accused, the Court said, cannot depend on how bulky the papers filed before the court are.

The High Court clarified that even if a bail application runs into hundreds of pages, that alone is not a valid or lawful reason to dismiss it. At most, a court can ask lawyers to limit their oral arguments or file a short written synopsis. However, outright rejection on the ground of length is unjustified.

The trial court had also cited heavy workload and docket pressure as a reason for dismissing the bail plea. Rejecting this argument, the High Court noted that once notice is issued and the matter is listed for final hearing, the court is duty-bound to hear the accused and decide the bail plea on merits.

Setting aside the trial court’s order, the High Court sent the matter back for fresh consideration. It directed the trial court to decide the bail application properly, after hearing both sides, and in accordance with law.