Teesha
The Jammu & Kashmir Court in its recent judgement ruled that in order to seek a bail on the grounds of delay should first qualify for a pending period of 5 years or more.
The order came in while considering a plea before it Raghubir Singh v/s UT of J & K, seeking suspension of sentence and grant bail on the grounds of delay in conclusion.
The Division Bench comprising Justices Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Puneet Gupta dismissed the plea seeking the bail for the accused that has been jailed for over 13 years for the offence of murder.
The Court observed that the appeal against the order of conviction dated 23rd July, 2020 was filed on 6th August, 2020.
Therefore, the Court while referring to the judgement of Rakesh Kumar vs State of J&K in July 2020 upheld the same that a delay of 5 years or more is necessary for eligibility to avail bail on the grounds of delay.
Following the same lines, the Court held that since 5 years have not elapsed after the filing of the appeal, the accused will not be entitled to bail on the grounds sought in plea.
Hence the plea was dismissed.