“100 Guilty…”: Arvind Kejriwal’s bail order references Benjamin Franklin
PTC News Desk: In the liquor policy case on Thursday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi, which cited Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud’s remarks at an event. The court also emphasized the rights of undertrials and the necessity of accelerating court procedures.
The Chief Justice’s speech at the CBI Day celebration, in which he emphasized the difficult responsibilities performed by trial court special judges handling CBI and Enforcement Directorate cases, was cited by special CBI Judge Nyay Bindu.
The Supreme Court and the CJI have been urging trial courts to speed the legal procedure in such cases, the judge said in the bail decision that has been paused.
“It is imperative that the government authorities and Higher Courts expedite the proceedings and reduce the number of cases pending,” the court declared.
Judge Bindu continued, saying that trial courts have been reminded by the Supreme Court and the High Courts of the significance of taking undertrials’ constitutional rights into account.
A quotation from American statesman Benjamin Franklin, “It is better that 100 guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer,” was also used by the court to emphasize the importance of adhering to this principle.
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The court stated that this concept entails an obligation to guarantee that no innocent person is punished in addition to keeping criminal people from evading punishment.
“In thousands of cases, the accused suffered through arduous trials and the misery that followed until the court found them innocent and exonerated them. Regretfully, there is no way in which the mental and bodily suffering of these people can be made up for,” the bail ruling stated.
The words of Lord Hewart, the English Chief Justice, were also quoted by the special court bench: “Justice should not only be done but should be seen to be done.” The order stated, “An accused could never conceive that ‘JUSTICE’ has actually been done in his favour if he has endured the atrocities of the system until his innocence is realized.”
The Delhi High Court, however, overturned the trial court’s decision to grant Kejriwal bail. The court declared that in order to examine all of the records, it was delaying the order for two to three days.