PERSONAL LIBERTY

the same state or otherwise.

On Friday morning, justice Chandrachud also stressed that a decision has been taken to give precedence to the cases where petitioners have been inside jails or fear imminent curtailment of liberty.

“After 10 transfer petitions, all the benches shall hear 10 bail matters every day... those are the matters of personal liberty and we will prioritise them. All the courts will start their regular boards after hearing these 20 cases,” said the CJI.

As the head of the administration in the top court, justice Chandrachud’s statement about putting the spotlight on bail matters is completely in sync with his judicial tenets as a judge who has persistently laid emphasis on personal liberty.

While granting bail in November 2020 to Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in an alleged abetment of suicide case, justice Chandrachud held that “deprivation of liberty even for a single day is one day too many”, adding that courts across the country “must ensure that they continue to remain the first line of defence against the deprivation of the liberty of citizens”.

“Arrest is not meant to be and must not be used as a punitive tool because it results in one of the gravest possible consequences emanating from criminal law — the loss of personal liberty,” the judge had said in July 2022 while giving bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in connection with criminal cases registered against him for his tweets that allegedly offended religious sentiments and incited people.

The CJI, while hearing another case on Friday, also apprised lawyers of the steps taken by him to streamline the listing mechanism and usher in utmost transparency in the manner in which cases get listed in the top court.

“Now that I am heading the administration, I will be as transparent as possible. I will send a matter to the most senior judge in line on a particular bench unless that judge has a short tenure and he or she expresses inability to finish a