The Rajasthan High Court has directed the office of Government Advocate cum Additional Advocate General (GA-cum-AAG) to call upon factual reports of FIRs, preferably within 3-7 days of filing of bail applications, based on which the bail shall be heard and decided in cases of petty offences, unless the Court considers it necessary to call for the case diaries.

While underscoring the issue of delay in hearing of bail applications, the bench of Justice Ravi Chirania held that sometimes in the matters of petty offences, the bail applications could be decided on merits, at the earliest, even without the case diary, depending upon the fact of each case.

For context, the Court was hearing a bail application, during which it was observed that it was the usual practice that a bail application was initially listed after 4-5 days of its filing when the Court called for case diary. This process took 15-20 days from the filing, before the matter could be taken upon on its merits.

It was held that the process led to unnecessary delays, especially in matters of petty offences, and reference was made to the Supreme Court ruling in Sunny Chauhan v State of Haryana, in which it was held,

“among the miscellaneous matters, nothing can be more important than deciding the fate of an application for bail" and emphasis was laid on the need for prioritizing the hearing of such matters, which involve the precious liberty of individuals.”

In this background, after taking inputs from the office of the GA-cum-AAG, the Court held that on filing of a bail application, the office of GA-cum-AAG shall immediately communicate the same to the concerned police state and furnish the factual report within 3-7 days.

This factual report shall be placed before the Court on the first hearing, so that the matter could be decided at the earliest, without unnecessary delay. Only if the Court considered the factual report to be not sufficient, then the case diary could be called for.

In this background, the aforementioned directions were issued, and it was further directed that the office of GA-cum-AAG shall maintain a record of communications to the concerned police station.

Title: Manish Kumar v State of Rajasthan

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