Mumbai: Observing that the entire nation is faced with the challenge of fighting the menace of novel coronavirus, the Bombay High Court on Friday refused to take up regular bail applications, unless there is an "extreme emergency."
HC also said that bail pleas cannot be heard now as the police must be on the field to ensure that no "antisocial" element breaches the lockdown and social distancing norms.
This significant order was passed by a single judge bench of Justice Anant Badar while denying bail to a man, booked in a cheating and forgery case. In his 16-page order, Justice Badar noted, "Entire nation is facing the challenge of fighting the menace of COVID-19 and Maharashtra is the most affected state with largest number of patients. The numbers are multiplying daily and are nearing 500 cases."
The bench further referred to the process of filing a bail application and then complying with the order, which requires employees of various government departments to work including the police machinery and the judiciary.
It noted that in such a scenario, processing a bail order would amount to breach of the lockdown order and may put them to the risk of contracting the infection.
"There is another difficulty in entertaining regular bail application in the wake of pandemic. The entire police machinery is focusing on implementation of the lockdown throughout the state by virtually remaining on the field for 24 hours. This is being done for saving the entire nation from the pandemic," Justice Badar noted.
"It is also seen that while implementing lockdown, the police and other government staff have to frequently deal with the problem of law and order, as several individuals or groups are turning violent and disrupting the work of sanitisation as well as providing medical aid to the victims," the judge noted further.
