The Supreme Court on Friday said the trial court’s finding that AAP leader Manish Sisodia was responsible for delaying the trial in the Delhi excise policy cases was not supported by the record.
While granting bail to Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, the apex court noted there were around 69,000 pages of documents related to the two matters.
“Taking into consideration the huge magnitude of the documents involved, it cannot be stated that the accused is not entitled to take a reasonable time for inspection of the said documents,” a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan said.
“In order to avail the right to fair trial, the accused cannot be denied the right to have inspection of the documents including the ‘un-relied upon documents’,” it said.
A bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan said Sisodia has been in custody for 17 months and trial has not yet commenced, depriving him of the right to speedy trial. The bench said it would be a travesty of justice to relegate him to the trial court for seeking bail in these cases.
The top court said it is high time that the trial courts and high courts recognise that the principle of bail is a rule and jail is an exception. It directed that Sisodia be released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh with two sureties of the like amount.
