Shahabuddin bail: Apex court pulls up Bihar govt

THE SUPREME Court on Wednesday asked the Bihar government why it had not challenged the bail granted to former RJD MP Mohd Shahabuddin in 45 other cases.

“Why have you (Bihar) approached the court only after his release? Were you in slumber till he got bail? This is a peculiar case. But the question is what is the peculiarity with this particular case and on whose instance this peculiarity has been identified,” said the bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy.

“Why did you not challenge bail granted to him (Shahabuddin) in 45 other cases? Why did you realise only when he came out of jail? If everything was fair, why would this case come to us,” said the bench.

The bench made the observations after senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi, appearing for Bihar, sought cancellation of Shahabuddin’s bail and said the decision was improper as the high court had ignored relevant material in the case. He admitted there were “anomalies” by the state government in the case, and he was not justifying what happened in the past, saying they were “handicapped at that time”.

“We can understand your difficulty and the only thing we can say is that we understand everything... but why should you be handicapped? You are the state. It was the duty of your lawyer to inform the high court about the correct facts of the case. It was your duty to inform the high court that a revision petition has been filed in the sessions court by Shahabuddin. Why didn’t you tell the high court at that point of time,” said the bench.

“We are just trying to find out what kind of person he is by looking at the background and circumstances of the case. How many cases are pending against him... (he) is a four-time MP and two-time MLA. We are just thinking what is the common man’s thought. There are so many cases against him and there are so many bail orders,” it said.

Dwivedi also said that Shahabuddin’s imprisonment hardly made any difference, since he was committing crimes from inside the jail premises as well.

The hearing on a batch of petitions seeking cancellation of Shahabuddin’s bail remained inconclusive and will resume on Thursday.