NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has taken a serious view of high courts exercising their "inherent powers" in granting bails to accused persons who try to "win over witnesses by using their muscle and money power."
A bench of Justices G P Mathur and A K Mathur maintained that an accused cannot directly approach the high courts for obtaining a bail as they should first approach the trial court for relief.
"The dockets of the high courts are full and there is long pendency of murder appeals in the high Court from which this case has arisen. Ends of justices would be better served if valuable time of the court is spent in hearing those appeals," the apex court said while canceling the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to certain murder accused persons.
Accused Rashid and others were charged with assaulting the complainant Hamida's husband Balla with lethal weapons on June 13, 2005 in Muzzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.