Accused can't be treated as criminals

Legal experts opined
that accused persons should not be treated as criminals and are entitled to
enjoy all constitutional rights till they are found guilty.

Participating in a
panel discussion on ‘Law Point’ over Sakshi TV channel on Friday, the experts
said that courts can deny bail to the accused only when they are found
influencing witnesses but not on the presumption that they would influence
witnesses.

During the discussion, High
Court senior lawyer L. Ravichander and lawyers P.Veera Reddy, A.Chandrasekhar
and GL Narasimha Rao more or less agreed with the view that bail can never be
denied to the accused with pre-conceived notions that they may influence the
witnesses.

Ravichander said the accused would be generally
granted bail in 99 per cent of the cases but courts can deny bail on the ground
that the accused may leave the country or influence the witnesses.

“However, the accused can’t be denied bail just
because if he or she happens to be an influential person,” Ravichander
observed. “My personal opinion is that it is unconstitutional and illegal on
part of the Supreme Court to say that Jagan can’t apply for bail till March 31,
2013 when the CBI completes investigation,” he said, adding that all accused
persons are entitled to enjoy their constitutional rights till they are proved
guilty.

While Narasimha Rao opined CBI is not doing the
right thing by filing charge sheet after charge sheet at frequent intervals,
Chandrasekhar recalled that Supreme Court itself had ordered in the past no
person should be kept in jail for long without proper reasons.

Veera Reddy said bail is denied to the accused only
when they are strong chances of the witnesses being influenced.

(Updated on Oct 6, 2012)