Mumbai, Jan 22 (PTI) In a stern judicial reprimand, a sessions court here has issued a show cause notice to a magistrate for not releasing a man, despite being granted bail by the superior court, terming the act “clear-cut insubordination”.
Sessions Judge Mujibodeen Samadsab Shaikh described the delay in the man’s release as “illegal detention” and directed that he be freed at once. The details of the court’s directive dated January 7 were made available on Thursday.
Ganesh Tribhuvan, an accused in a case under the Negotiable Instruments Act, had been granted bail by the sessions court on January 2.
Five days later, his lawyer sought the court’s intervention, saying Tribhuvan had not been released.
As per the sessions court’s January 7 ‘roznama’ (daily status report), Judicial Magistrate First Class (Kurla) Santosh Garad had on January 6 issued the release memo.
However, the magistrate later passed a su-moto order and declared “its own order unauthorised void ….in the eyes of law and recalled it”. The magistrate then directed that no release memo shall be issued “without express judicial order”, the sessions court noted.
While the release order was handed to the jail authorities to facilitate Tribhuvan’s release, oral directions were later given not to release him on bail, the sessions court observed.
Coming down heavily on the lower court for its “bizarre” act, the sessions judge said that “the order of JMFC is apparently illegal and unlawful”.
“Authenticated order copy of this court as well as the writ of bail order was given to the magistrate, but he did not act upon and on the contrary passed an illegal order which is showing clear-cut insubordination,” the roznama said.
The sessions court said the accused remained in custody despite fulfilling bail conditions, leading to a state of “illegal detention”.
The sessions court then directed its own office to accept the PR (Personal Recognizance) Bond of Rs 15,000 and issue the release order of the accused “forthwith”.
It also served a show-cause notice to the JMFC (Kurla), demanding an explanation as to why disciplinary action should not be taken for insubordination and the resulting illegal detention. PTI AVI NR
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