The Supreme Court (SC) has granted bail to a 75-year-old man convicted of rape and murder after a 40-year trial and asked the Calcutta High Court to take up his appeal on a priority basis.
“The trial came to an end with the order of conviction of the appellant on April 21. The appellant was throughout on bail. The present age of the appellant is about 75 years. The appeal before the HC has been admitted for final hearing,” a Bench led by Justice AS Oka said. It said normally, the SC should not issue a direction to a constitutional court or any other court to fix a schedule to decide a case. However, this case had a peculiar feature that the trial took 40 years to conclude. “We, therefore, request the high court to give out of turn priority to the disposal of the appeal in accordance with law,” the Bench said on September 25 while hearing an appeal filed by the convict challenging the May 17 HC order rejecting his bail plea.
Source: TNS