Why bail petitioners must cut karuvelam trees: Madras HC

Chennai: Slamming the present trend of imposing bail conditions to cut “Seemai Karuvelam (prosposis Juli flora) trees or fill water in troughs by the lower courts, the Madras high court has said while granting bail a court cannot mechanically impose “unbearable”, “impracticable” and “obnoxious” conditions.

“I am guided by law and also by my (judicial) conscience. I am not subscribing to the new found ideology of imposing such ‘odd’, ‘onerous’ and ‘obnoxious’ conditions in bail orders.

The present spree or competition among the judges in our state to impose such bail conditions signals not the march of law, but an onslaught on human rights, human elements, and human sentiments. We are not for bread alone. Honour and human dignity are above all. Thus, imposing of odd conditions in bail orders is against law”, said Justice P. Devadass.

While the judge was granting bail to an accused who is allegedly involved in a murder case, the counsel for the petitioner appealed that the petitioner may not be asked to cut karuvelam trees as part of the bail condition because the petitioner has to undergo indignation.

The lawyers present in the court also brought to the knowledge of the court a news report, wherein it was stated that the judges in Ariyalur and Tiruchengode directed the accused to uproot Seemai Karuvelam trees as a condition for securing bail, a magistrate in Mettupalayam ordered an accused in a poaching case to fill water in troughs created for the forest department for a month as a bail condition. This prompted Justice Devadass to pass the present order.

Justice Devadass said while imposing conditions in a bail order, courts should not impose ‘odd condition’. “Till a person is convicted, he is presumed to be an innocent. Except the word accused, he is a normal person. One can be convicted only after a fair trial, not a mere trial”, the judge added.

The judge said, “Courts are under the law and not above the law. They are not extra-constitutional authorities on the earth. Nor suddenly descended from some heavenly bodies. In a democratic country based on a written constitution, where courts, exercise sovereign powers of the State, must pass orders only in accordance with law”.