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During the 21-day national lockdown period declared to monitor the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic, the Rajasthan High Court (Jaipur Bench) on Tuesday directed the Registry not to mention applications for bail and sentence suspension under the category of 'serious urgent matters.' Justice Pankaj Bhandari passed the order, noting that these matters cannot be considered of extreme urgency. One of the reasons cited in the order is that matters relating to the grant of bail, suspension of sentence, etc. will inevitably entail additional actions that would burden public officials and advocates, such as the creation of the order before the imprisonment involved, the execution of bail bonds, the arrangement of protection, etc. Thereafter the whole procedure has to be followed which includes many people and thereby increases the risk.
Accordingly, the Court noted that "the release of one suspected or convicted person would endanger the lives of others and would adversely affect the State's measures for complete lockdown. The Court also noted that the Rajasthan High Court has holidays in Holi, Dashera, Diwali and Winter spanning from a few days to a few weeks during which the Court also does not take up applications for Bail and applications for suspension of sentence.
The Court also found the DG Prisons claim that there had been no overcrowding in the state jails. “The release of an arrested or convicted person at the cost of violating the lock-down order and at the cost of risking lives for others cannot be regarded to be falling under the category of 'extreme urgency,' Justice Bhandari observed.
Just sending notification to police staff in the current lock-down situation can pose the risk of COVID-19 spreading because even police staff have been quarantined. Furthermore, there is a complete closure of public transport, so it cannot and should not be expected from the police staff that they should abandon the evolving mission set out in the "Act" to serve the complainant and travel hundreds of kilometers in their private vehicles to create case diaries, thereby posing a threat to the community at large and to themselves by COVID-19.
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