The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail allowed to a person accused of forging/manipulating court order in a plea challenging the order of the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench where the Court allowed the bail without considering the seriousness of the offence.
A single-judge bench of Justice M.R. Shah noted,
“…looking to the very serious allegations of forging/manipulating court order and having taken advantage of the same, the High Court is not justified in releasing respondent on bail.”
The appeal has been filed challenging the order of the Allahabad High Court allowing bail to a person accused of fabrication in the court record by way of using a whitener. The court record was tampered with and instead of ‘Mahesh’, ‘Ramesh’ had been written.
The counsel for the appellant had vehemently submitted that while releasing the accused on bail, the High Court has not at all considered the seriousness of the charge against the accused and the gravity of the matter.
It was further added, “…that this is a case of manipulation and forgery of the court record and as per the enquiry report of the Learned Additional Sessions Judge, there was interpolation in the court record. It is submitted that interpolation and manipulation of the court record is a very serious offence.”
The counsel for appellant further submitted that as such no reasons whatsoever have been given by the High Court while releasing accused on bail.
Sakshi Kakkar, counsel appearing on behalf of the accused, stated, the High Court has not committed any error in releasing the accused on bail, whereas, that by releasing the accused on bail, the High Court has acted within the well-known parameters of grant of bail, and all the six witnesses are Government witnesses and most of them are court staff and, therefore, there are no chances for the accused to influence them.
However, the Supreme Court observed that the judgment and order passed by the Learned Sessions Judge was produced in which the accused was shown as acquitted. On the basis of the same, the Learned Special Court acquitted the accused. Therefore, in fact, he is the beneficiary of the said forged/manipulated court order.
The court said that in the facts and circumstances of the case and looking at the very serious allegations of forging/manipulating court orders and having taken advantage of the same, the High Court is not justified in releasing the accused on bail.