Court gives strictness against lawyers for not taking appeal against those who are on bail
The Bombay High Court in a 1998 appeal withdrew a non-bailable warrant (NBW) order after it was found that the murder accused was handicapped and could not appear before the court.
A division bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav and Justice Prithviraj Chavan was hearing the criminal appeal filed by then 23-year-old Balasaheb Varhade. Several lawyers in the case had sought multiple adjournments from 2005 to 2020.
The court remarked, “We are urging the advocates to proceed with the old cases apart from hearing the jail appeals. We have observed that in most of the cases where the accused are on bail, there is a tendency of advocates to seek adjournment on one ground or the other. In many cases, we have had to issue bailable warrants, then non-bailable warrants. In some cases, the court had to issue custodial notices to the accused, informing them that the counsel engaged by them did not appear or that they were no longer representing the prosecution and were, therefore, unable to conduct the case. Huh.
The order said, “It is generally observed that advocates do not take the responsibility of filing criminal appeals at the stage of final hearing. In one case we actually interacted with the accused, who were brought to the court on the issue of bailable warrants and they informed us that they did not know the counsel representing them in the appeal. It is in this scenario that criminal appeals are pending in this court. On several occasions we have requested the members of the Legal Aid Panel to conduct the cases. The said advocates have not only graciously admitted to admitting the cause of the appellant, but they have assisted the court to the best of their ability.”
The court further said, “It is difficult for the courts to expedite the hearing of criminal appeals as there is no proper co-operation of the advocates on record in the respective matters. The Bar Council is requested to take cognizance of this fact.”
On 2 December, the court issued a non-bailable warrant against Mr. Varhade. On 16 December, he appeared before it and said that he had met with an accident in 2015 and was disabled due to it. The court then withdrew the NBW’s order.
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