New Delhi: Seeking to balance the rights of an accused with the gravity of offence he has been charged with, Supreme Court on Friday granted prospective bail to former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee from Feb 1 in a money laundering case related to the teachers recruitment ‘scam’ and directed the trial court to decide on framing of charges and record statements of vulnerable witnesses by then.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan struck an innovative balance to tackle the classical dilemma in administration of justice — while the accused can’t be kept in custody indefinitely as that would amount to punitive detention, scales of justice cannot be balanced if affluent and influential accused obstruct probe or tamper with evidence.
As part of the reconciliation of the two imperatives, the bench said the influential TMC politician could continue as an MLA but would not be appointed to any public office during pendency of the trial.
The restraint on holding public office is significant as it marks the crystallisation of the judicial reasoning first witnessed in the SC’s dismay over re-appointment of Senthil Balaji as minister in Tamil Nadu soon after the apex court released him on bail in a money laundering case.
The order also pointed to the emergence of prospective bail as a new concept as it was only on Thursday that a different bench, while upholding the bail plea of an accused in a money laundering case, ruled that he would not come out for another two months.
Chatterjee’s right as an accused and his bail plea must be juxtaposed with broader societal harm caused by his alleged action of taking bribe to recruit undeserving candidates as teachers while depriving thousands of deserving candidates their future, the bench said. While passing the prospective bail order, the bench also cited the statement of Arpita Mukherjee, a co-accused in the case, fearing threat to her life from Chatterjee.
Prior to release of Chatterjee on bail, the bench said the trial court must decide on framing of charges before Dec 31 and “fix a date within the second and third week of Jan for recording statements of such prosecution witnesses who are most material or vulnerable. All such witnesses, especially those who have expressed apprehension of danger to their lives, will be examined on these dates”.
Asking Chatterjee and his counsel to cooperate with the trial court in recording witness statements, the bench said if the trial court framed charges against him, he would have the right to appeal against it. However, it restrained the appellate court from staying the trial during pendency of the appeal against framing of charges.
Fixing an outer limit of Jan 31 for completion of recording of statements of vulnerable and important witnesses, the bench said while Chatterjee would be released on bail on Feb 1, his bail would be cancelled if he was found to have influenced or threatened witnesses directly or indirectly. The SC asked him to appear without fail before the trial court on every hearing, and attempts to delay or stall the trial would entail cancellation of bail.
Between the cases involving Balaji and Chatterjee, the SC may have restored the convention followed until recently when politicians, even powerful ones, resigned as soon as they were chargesheeted. This was followed across the spectrum — those who quit include BJP stalwart L K Advani and RJD boss Lalu Prasad — until others like Manish Sisodia, Anil Deshmukh, Satyendar Jain, Arvind Kejriwal, among others, held on to their respective offices. The repercussions of the court drawing the line afresh may have implications for many who are in office while on bail as well as those who are fancying a return.
