Supreme Court slams Allahabad High Court over delay in pronouncing order on SP leader Azam Khan's bail plea

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The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its anger over the delay being caused by the Allahabad High Court in pronouncing the order on the bail plea filed by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan.

The bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice BR Gavai was, however, informed that the High Court reserved the order on Khan's bail application yesterday i.e. May 5, 2022.

The bench noted, "We are holding on to this because we want the High Court to pass an order. Let them pass an order. If we hold on to this at least they will pass an order."

The bench, while giving 2 days' time to the High Court to pronounce its order, observed that Khan has been released on bail in 87 cases, however, this one case is still pending, which is a travesty of Justice.

The pending matter pertains to a bail application in a case wherein Khan has been accused of corruption, cheating, forgery, criminal breach of public trust, criminal conspiracy, tampering with evidence and creating, etc.

Earlier, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Khan had submitted that that FIRs are registered just before elections and most of them relate to events that occurred long back.

In addition to this Sibal had further argued that the applications filed for bail in the High Court are being adjourned and the petitioner is suffering in jail due to FIRs registered on false and frivolous grounds.

Mentioning about the delay in the hearing of bail application in court, Sibal submitted, "This is going on from 3-4 months and I'm inside jail for no reason."

The bench had granted liberty to approach the concerned court and request for expeditious disposal of the bail applications. In addition to this, the bench had also directed the Court to dispose of the bail applications expeditiously.

Case Title: Mohammad Azam Khan Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh