Kerala High Court prescribes timelines for speedy disposal of bail applications

The Kerala High Court has notified that bail applications should be considered and disposed of within six weeks. The court specified that regular bail applications should be disposed of within two weeks and anticipatory bail pleas within six weeks.

The High Court prescribed the timelines to comply with the Supreme Court directives to ensure the expeditious disposal of bail applications. The High Court also decided that in any regular bail applications, the time granted for the government authorities to respond shall not exceed seven working days.

The apex court had proposed various suggestions for speedy disposal of bail applications, noting the high rates of pending bail applications across the country. It suggested that bail matters should be listed on a weekly or fortnightly basis through an automatic software-based system; status reports on the cases should be filed mandatorily before the matter is first heard; the Advocate General or government agencies concerned should be notified in advance; mechanisms should be evolved to ensure fresh bail applications are listed on alternate days or at least within a week of filing, with mandatory representation from the Union or State government.

The Supreme Court also suggested that matters not taken up be re-listed automatically and that an outer timeline be set for the disposal of bail applications. It was also stressed that High Courts should discourage casual or avoidable adjournments sought by government counsels.