BHOLABHAI CHATURBHAI PATEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the original accused, who came to be arrested on 22nd October, 2002, in connection with C.R. No.I-452 of 2002 registered with Naranpura Police Station for the offences punishable under Sections 167, 406, 409, 467, 468, 471, 477 r/w. Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and also under Section 46 of the Banking Regulation Act. The petitioner has introduced himself in paragraph:2 of the memo of the petition as a law abiding citizen of the country, having graduated in Science and Law. It is contended that he had started legal practice in the year 1953 and joined public life in the year 1960 as a Social Worker at Visnagar. It is not necessary to mention various activities mentioned in paragraph:2 of the memo of the petition because these aspects were brought to the notice of the Court initially when the petitioner had approached this Court for bail after his arrest and when he had attempted to get regular bail even pending investigation of the crime. But in short, the say of the petitioner is that he is a man of very high reputation in the society as well as in the co-operative movement in the State of Gujarat. He has served as a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of State of Gujarat for 10 years i.e. between 1985 and 1995, as well as Member of Public Accounts committee, Gujarat Legislative Assembly from 1986 to 1987. The petitioner has moved this Court on more than one occasions for bail and this Court has not accepted the bail plea on merit on any of the earlier occasion. One such application moved to get regular bail was Criminal Misc. Application No.9498 of 2004. During pendency of the hearing of the said regular bail application, the petitioner was extended relief of temporary bail on the ground of health and the nature of treatment he was taking in the Civil Hospital and thereafter, in the private hospital. This Court vide order dated 10th February, 2005, rejected the prayer of regular bail and the petitioner was granted four weeks time to surrender before the Jail Authorities, especially in order to enable the petitioner to approach the Apex Court in between, if he so desired. Being aggrieved by this order, the petitioner preferred one petition being Special Leave Petition (Cri) No.1169 of 2005 and vide interim order dated 07th March, 2005, the time to surrender to the Jail Authorities granted by this Court was extended till further orders by the Apex Court. The Apex Court after hearing both the sides dismissed the said Special Leave Petition vide order dated 01st August, 2005. On the strength of one observation made by the Apex Court in the order, the present application has been filed saying that the petitioner has been granted permission by the Apex Court to approach this Court afresh for regular bail observing that this Court has not decided the bail plea on merit. For the sake of brevity and convenience, it would be appropriate to reproduce the order dated 01st August, 2005 passed by the Apex Court in the above mentioned Special Leave Petition, which is as under :

(2.) The memo of present petition is a detailed petition running into about 50 pages and Mr.A.D. Shah, learned senior counsel, has taken me through the history of the earlier petitions filed by the present petitioner and the orders passed thereon. He has also taken me through certain observations made by this Court while dealing with the earlier applications and the orders extending the temporary bail granted or extended by this Court on the ground of health. He has also taken me through some of the orders passed in favour of co-accused persons of the same crime granting them bail on merit; especially the orders granting bail to the son of the petitioner-Kaushikbhai and the order passed in favour of another co-accused-Babubhai Shivlal Shah.

(3.) To appreciate the say of Mr.A.D. Shah, learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner, firstly I would like to reproduce the nature of main reliefs prayed for in the main petition in paragraph:17, which is as under :