BREAKING | 'Demoralising': Allahabad HC Judge Requests Removal From Bail Roster Following Supreme Court's Criticism Of His Order

Allahabad High Court judge Justice Pankaj Bhatia today passed an order requesting the Chief Justice NOT to assign him the Bail Roster in future. The move comes just 4 days after the Supreme Court termed one of his bail orders (in a Dowry Death case) as "Most Shocking & Disappointing".

While releasing a second bail plea filed by a Murder accused from his roster, Justice Bhatiya requested that he may not be assigned the Bail Roster in future.

For context, the order in question was passed by the Supreme Court on February 9, in which it strongly criticised the High Court for passing an unreasoned bail order in a dowry death case without taking into account the factors to be considered in bail applications.

In this case, the High Court bench (presided over by Justice Bhatia) had granted bail to the husband of the deceased victim by merely recording in the order sheet his period of incarceration and absence of a criminal history.

This order was described by a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan as one of the "most shocking and disappointing orders that it has come across over a period of time".

"We fail to understand on plain reading of the impugned order as to what the High Court is trying to convey. What weighed with the High Court in exercising its discretion in favour of the accused for the purpose of grant of bail in a very serious crime like dowry death. What did the High Court do? All that the High Court did, was to record the submission of the defense counsel and thereafter proceeded to observe that the accused was in jail since 27.07.2025 and there being no criminal history, he was entitled to bail. Accordingly, bail came to be granted", the Top Court had remarked.

In response to this order, Justice Bhatia today stated in one of his orders that the Apex Court's remarks had the "huge demoralising and chilling effect" upon him. 

He also stated in the order that he had read the reports about the said Supreme Court order in LiveLaw.

In his two-page order, Justice Bhatia said that although there is no judge who can claim that his order has never been set aside or interfered with, the observations made in the SC order had a huge demoralising and chilling effect on him.

It may be noted that last year, the bench led by Justice Pardiwala had issued a stern order against the Allahabad High Court in a separate case, even directing the Chief Justice of the High Court to refrain from assigning criminal matters to the concerned judge who had declined to dismiss a criminal case on the flawed reasoning that a related civil suit was ineffective.

The order had met with strong opposition from thirteen Judges of the High Court, who had written to the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice urging him not to implement the directions of the Supreme Court. However, the Top Court had recalled this order just 4 days thereafter.

In another criminal matter, the bench led by Justice Pardiwala expressed displeasure with an order of the Allahabad High Court that declined to suspend the fixed-term sentence without applying the settled position of law on sentence suspension.