The Supreme Court set aside the Patna High Court order granting him bail in a murder case saying the discretion to release must be applied in “judicious manner” and “not as a matter of course”.
PTI
PATNA
In a major setback for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Supreme Court on Friday cancelled the bail of mafia don Mohd Shahabuddin after castigating the State government's lackadaisical approach on the matter while the Patna High Court scrapped the liquor ban imposed by Nitish on April 1.
Nitish was under attack ever since Shahabuddin had been granted bail by the Patna High Court on September 7. His government was seen as not having taken a strong stand against the bail application filed by Shahabuddin.
“The order passed by the High Court granting bail to the respondent-accused (Shahabuddin) is set aside and the state is directed to take all consequential steps, inter alia, for taking him to custody forthwith,” a bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said.
The bench, which clarified that it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case pending against the RJD leader, asked Bihar government and the concerned court to take “all steps as contemplated in law to dispose of the case, as early as possible”.
Referring to various judgements on bail, it said, “Judged on entire conspectus of the attendant facts and circumstances, and considering the stage of the present case before the trial court where charge-sheet has already been submitted, together with pending proceedings against the respondent-accused as on date, and his recorded antecedents in the various decisions of this court, we are thus unable to sustain the impugned order of the High Court granting bail to him.” In its 10-page order, the apex court dealt with various aspects of the submissions and said, “Although it has to be accepted that the respondent-accused has already been granted bail by the concerned courts in other cases, a duty is cast upon the court in addressing such a prayer in a case on its own merit, and while applying its discretion, it must be applied in a judicious manner and not as a matter of course.”
Shahabuddin was granted bail by the Patna High Court on September 7 in the Rajiv Roshan murder case and was released from Bhagalpur jail on September 10. He has already remained in jail for 11 years in connection with several cases.
The Patna High Court, meanwhile quashed a notification banning liquor in Bihar, but hours later, a high-level meeting called by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar decided to summon the state Cabinet on October 2 to ratify a notification on an amended liquor law for continuation of prohibition.
The meeting also deliberated on the option to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court against the High Court order, quashing the April 5 notification on liquor ban, saying it was ultra vires to the Constitution.
In a judgment, a bench of Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh quashed the April 5 notification of the state government banning consumption and sale of alcohol in the state.
The April 5 notification is ultra vires to the Constitution and hence, not enforceable, the court said.
The same bench had, on May 20, reserved its order on a batch of writ petitions filed by Liquor Trade Association and numerous individuals, challenging the liquor law in Bihar brought by the Nitish Kumar government with stringent penal provisions.
The Grand Secular Alliance government had first banned manufacture, trade, sale and consumption of country-made liquor since April 1 but later, imposed a blanket ban on all types of liquor, including foreign liquor, in the state.
The Chief Minister has now called the meeting of the state Cabinet on October 2 in which an amended liquor law, passed by both Houses of the state legislature and consented to by the Governor, is likely to be approved for notification with an aim to continue with prohibition in the state.
