The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a Rajasthan High Court’s order granting bail to a man accused of raping his niece and observed that the High Court had failed to consider the influence that the accused may have over the victim as an elder family member.
A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Krishna Murari said, “Reasoning is the lifeblood of the judicial system. That every order must be reasoned is one of the fundamental tenets of our system. An unreasoned order suffers the vice of arbitrariness.” The judgement of the bench came on a plea filed by an alleged rape survivor who sought cancellation of bail of her uncle, a habitual offender, against whom nearly twenty cases are registered.
The apex court in its judgement while cancelling the bail of the accused said there was no mention in the High Court order that the accused is a habitual offender, who has been facing nearly twenty other criminal cases.
“In the present case, accused has been accused of committing the grievous offence of rape against his young niece of nineteen years. The fact that the accused is a habitual offender and nearly twenty cases registered against him has not even found mention in the impugned order,” the verdict of the top court said.
The High Court has failed to consider the influence that the accused may have over the victim as an elder family member, it said, adding that the period of imprisonment, being only three months, was not of such a magnitude as to push the court towards granting bail in an offence of this nature.
The apex court said that while dealing with bail pleas, the courts should keep in mind the factors like “position and the status of the accused with reference to the victim and the witnesses; the likelihood, of the accused fleeing from justice; of repeating the offence; of jeopardising his own life being faced with a grim prospect of possible conviction in the case; of tampering with witnesses…”
As per the prosecution, the accused had raped his niece in May 2021 at her residence and was arrested following the registration of the FIR.