In the aftermath of the joining of Chief Justice V. Kameswar Rao, as the 49th Chief Justice of Patna High Court, the High Court has uploaded a 4-page long statement entitled "Directions for expeditious disposal of bail applications in compliance of the judgment dated 12.09.2025 passed by the hon'ble supreme court of india in criminal appeal no. 4004/2025 titled 'Anna Waman Bhalerao vs. State of Maharashtra'" on the home page of its website.
In Anna Waman Bhalerao vs. State of Maharashtra 2025 INSC 1114, Supreme Court's Division Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan had delivered a 28-page long judgement dated September 12, 2025, wherein, it drew on clear principles which emerged from Court's previous judgements. It concluded: "Applications concerning personal liberty cannot be kept pending for years while the applicants remain under a cloud of uncertainty. The consistent line of authority of this Court makes it abundantly clear that bail and anticipatory applications must be decided expeditiously on their own merits, without relegating the parties to a state of indefinite pendency. Prolonged delay in disposal not only frustrates the object of Code of Criminal Procedure, but also amounts to a denial of justice, contrary to the constitutional ethos reflected in Articles 14 and 21. 18. We accordingly issue the following directions:
a) High Courts shall ensure that applications for bail and anticipatory bail pending before them or before the subordinate courts under their jurisdiction are disposed of expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months from the date of filing, except in cases where delay is attributable to the parties themselves.
b) High Courts shall issue necessary administrative directions to subordinate courts to prioritise matters involving personal liberty and to avoid indefinite adjournments.
c) Investigating agencies are expected to conclude investigations in long-pending cases with promptitude so that neither the complainant nor the accused suffers prejudice on account of undue delay.
d) Being the highest constitutional fora in the States, High Courts must devise suitable mechanisms and procedures to avoid accumulation of pending bail / anticipatory bail applications and ensure that the liberty of citizens is not left in abeyance. In particular, bail and anticipatory bail applications shall not be kept pending for long durations without passing orders either way, as such pendency directly impinges upon the fundamental right to liberty. 18.1. The Registrar (Judicial) of this Court shall circulate a copy of this judgment to all High Courts for immediate compliance and prompt administrative action."
Patna High Court's 4-page long statement is as under:
THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
Directions for expeditious disposal of bail applications in compliance of the judgment dated 12.09.2025 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Criminal Appeal No. 4004/2025 titled 'Anna Waman Bhalerao V s. State of Maharashtra'.
The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India vide judgment dated 12.09.2025 passed in Criminal Appeal No. 4004/2025 titled 'Anna Waman Bhalerao Vs. State of Maharashtra' has directed all the High Courts to ensure that applications for bail and anticipatory bail pending before them or before the subordinate courts under their jurisdiction are disposed of expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months from the date of filing, except in cases where delay is attributable to the parties themselves. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has also directed for prioritizing the matters involving personal liberty and to avoid unnecessary adjournments.
Accordingly, a SOP has been formulated with a view to ensure that bail applications are disposed of expeditiously, which shall be adhered to by all the courts while dealing with bail matters:-
1. In any judgeship, within the state of Bihar, whenever an application for regular or anticipatory bail is to be filed, an advance copy of bail or anticipatory bail application shall be served on the Public Prosecutor/ Additional Public Prosecutor/ District Prosecution Officer, as the case may be.
2. On receipt of the advance copy of the bail or anticipatory bail application, the concerned PP/ APP/ DPO, as the case may be, shall call for the case diary/status report without waiting for the order of the Court through the Court Officer/ Court Nayab (Nyayalaya), so as to effectively assist the Court during the course of hearing of the bail application.
3. Court Nayab (Nyayalaya) has been deputed in every Court in compliance of Police Order No. 33112025 read with CID, Bihar Letter No. 121/Prosecution dated 13.02.2025, for ensuring compliance of the orders of the Court and seamless transfer of information and documents required by the Court. Thus, Court Nayab (Nyayalaya) shall be solely responsible to procure the case diary from the concerned Court Nayab (Police Thana) and for the said purpose he will coordinate with the PP/ APP/ DPO/ Court Officer/ Court Nayab (Police Thana) etc. on day-to-day basis regarding the pending bail applications.
4. A whatsapp group of the PP/ APP/ DPO/ Court Officer/ SHO/Court Nayab (Nyayalaya)/Court Nayab (Police Thana)/ Nodal Officer may be created for the purpose of expediting the production of case diary. It will be preferable if the scanned copy of the case diary is transmitted by the Court Nayab (Police Thana) of the respective police station to the Learned PP/APP/DPO/ Court Nayab (Nyayalaya) by whatsapp or email. The APP shall produce the scanned copy of the case diary in digital form before the concerned Court. The Nodal Officer (Dy. S.P. Level) shall be responsible for ensuring proper coordination amongst the Court Officer/ Court Nayab (Nyayalaya)/ Court Nayab (Police Thana) and the SHO of the concerned Police Station.
5. In such cases, where it is mandatorily required, as per the statute, to issue notice to the victim/ informant like in POCSO/ SC & ST cases at the time of hearing of bail application, the notice shall also be served upon the victim/informant through the concerned SHO of the Police Station and the service report shall be filed before the Court concerned within a period of 5 days.
6. In such cases, where the Injury" Report/Post-Mortem Report is required, the PP/APP/ DPO shall provide the details of the case to the Court Nayab (Nyayalaya), who in turn will be responsible to obtain the same from the CMO/CS of the concerned district/ Primary Health Centre/ Medical College Hospital/ other hospitals within a period of 5 days and ensure production of the same before the concerned Court.
Similarly, in case of requirement of FSL Report by the Court concerned, the PP/APP/DPO shall provide the details of the case to the Court Nayab (Nyayalaya) who shall, in turn, be responsible to obtain the same within a period 5 days and ensure production before the Court concerned.
In the case of failure to make available the Injury Report/Post-Mortem Report by the Court Nayab (Nyayalaya) within a period of 5 days from the date of requisition, the same shall be reported by the PP/APP/DPO to the Court concerned, who shall be free to take appropriate coercive action against the defaulter, for delay in production of the reports in time. The feasibility of appointing one Nodal Officer by the Health Department in each district for the purpose of coordinating procurement of Injury Report/Post-Mortem Report/FSL Report; may be explored. The Additional Chief Secretary, Health Department be requested to do the needful in this regard.
7. No adjournment shall be granted on mere asking of Advocates and only in exceptional circumstances, adjournment may be granted in bail matters, after recording of specific reasons for such adjournment by the concerned Court.
8. Learned Principal District and Session Judge shall allocate bail and anticipatory bail application filed before him, amongst the Judicial Officers in an equitable manner (except Special Courts) taking into consideration, the existing workload of a particular Judge and also other factors deemed essential to be considered.
9. Every Court shall submit a monthly statement to the Principal District & Sessions Judge of the concerned judgeship furnishing the details of filing and disposal of bail applications in their Court, which shall be discussed in the monthly officers' · meeting and thereafter a consolidated report of the same shall be transmitted by the Learned Principal District & Sessions Judge to the Hon'ble Inspecting Judge of the concerned judgeship. In case of delay of more than 2 months in disposal of bail petition, the concerned presiding officer shall furnish the reasons thereof in the order itself highlighting the reasons for nondisposal within the time specified.
10. The Principal District and Session Judge shall communicate the noncompliance of the orders to the D.M. and S.P. in the DLMC meeting and seek information regarding the action taken agaipst the erring Nayab Courts/I.O.s, who have failed to submit the case dairy/ Injury Report/ Post-Mortem Report/FSL Report, within the time prescribed.
11. Copy of the SOP be shared with the DM (Head of the prosecution) and SP/SSP (Head of the investigation)/Nodal Officer of all the districts for information and ensuring necessary compliance.
Additionally, the following suggestions may be implemented for expeditious disposal of bail applications in the High Court and Civil courts:-
1. Creation of a dedicated bail dashboard: A dashboard at the District Level as well as High Court level may be created for monitoring the pendency of Bail and Anticipation Bail Applications. The age of each application may be calculated from the date of filing, in conformity with the direction of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. The applications may be automatically categorized as: up to 30 days; 31-60 days; 61-90 days; and above 90 days. The bail matters which are more than 60 days old may be termed as 'aged bail matters' and those above 90 days as "Long Pending Bail Matters."
2. Software for Priority identification in the listing process: The regular Bail/Anticipatory Bail Applications approaching or exceeding two months from the date of filing may be identified in the listing software system so that the concerned Hon'ble Bench is able to readily notice the age of such matters. A red flag may be put before such cases so that they can be listed on priority basis.
3. Identification of the reason for pendency: In such bail applications, which have remained pending for more than 60 days, the Registry may identify the broad reasons for their pendency, such as: case diary awaited; service awaited; reply/counter of the State awaited; adjournment sought by the petitioner; adjournment sought by the State; matter part-heard; stay order by the higher courts; connected matter pending; order reserved; listing/administrative reason; or any other reason. This would enable the Hon'ble Court to ascertain whether the delay is attributable to the parties or arises from any procedural or administrative cause.
4. Timeline: A timeline may be fixed by the Hon'ble Court for .conduct of stamp reporting/ notifying defects and curing the same. The entire process should preferably take not more than 72 hours.
5. Listing: As far as Hon'ble High Court is concerned, bail matter may be listed before all the Hon'ble Judges sitting singly in moderate numbers for example 5 or 10 cases before every Judge.
6. Categorization: The listing and consideration of bail matter can be classified according the nature and gravity of the crime, on the basis of general statutory classifications, on the basis of operational categories like anticipatory bail/regular bail/statutory bail etc. and on the basis of categorization under the Special Act.
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