Minister's post does not entitle someone for special consideration for grant of bail: SC
Supreme Court said on Friday, asserting that «official positions, regardless of their stature, lose relevance for the purpose of exercising judicial discretion judiciously». A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, which granted conditional future bail to former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee in a money-laundering case related to the alleged cash-for-jobs scam in the state, said impartiality is a prerequisite to the rule of law, wherein decisions are based on the factual matrix of a case as opposed to an individual's position or influence.
It rejected Chatterjee's argument seeking special consideration for the grant of bail on the ground that he was entitled for the relief as he was a minister at the relevant time.
«In this context, the argument that the appellant's position as a minister entitles him to any special consideration does not hold merit from either perspective. Impartiality is a prerequisite to the rule of law, wherein decisions are based on the factual matrix of the case as opposed to the individual's position or influence,» the bench said.
It added that the court has emphatically clarified that while an accused person's official status should not form grounds for denying bail to him, it also cannot constitute a special consideration for the grant of bail if no case is made out to provide such relief.
«Official positions, regardless of their stature, lose their relevance for the purpose of exercising judicial discretion judiciously,» it said.
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