ITEM NO.27 COURT NO.8 SECTION II-A
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 3020/2024
(Arising out of impugned interim order dated 14-02-2024 in CRBA
No.3135/2022 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay)
BADSHAH MAJID MALIK Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT MUMBAI
ZONAL UNIT II & ORS. Respondent(s)
(IA No.52804/2024-EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT)

Date : 04-03-2024 This petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE ABHAY S. OKA
HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE UJJAL BHUYAN
For Petitioner(s)
Mr. Siddharth Aggarwal, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Shahrukh Ali, Adv.
Mr. Deepak Singh, Adv.
Mr. Ashish Raghuvanshi, Adv.
Mr. Aniruddha Purushotham, AOR

For Respondent(s)
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
This is the second occasion on which the petitioner has approached this Court with a grievance that his application for bail in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 case is not being considered. By filing SLP(Criminal)No.8261 of 2023, the petitioner made similar grievance when this Court passed the following order:
“A grievance is made that after 14th March, 2023 the bail application filed by the petitioner has not been listed. Additional documents show that the High Court was moved on 16th June, 2023 to fix a date.

If the bail application filed by the petitioner deserves to be given out of turn
priority, we are sure that if the petitioner moves the High court for fixing an early date,
the High court will examine the prayer made by the petitioner in its right perspective.
Subject to what is observed above, the Special Leave Petition is disposed of.”

In a soft language, this order gives sufficient indication that the bail petition deserves to be considered by giving some kind of a priority. After the said order, the case was fixed on 9 occasions when the application was not heard. The impugned order dated 14 th February, 2024 reads thus:

“1. Mr. Majmudar holding for Mr. Sethna for Customs Department submits that notice has been received by them yesterday itself and moreover they have not been appraised of the Circular dated 23 rd October, 2015.

2. Mr. Ponda learned Senior Advocate submits that copy of the circular dated 23 rd
October, 2015 will be furnished to respondent No.3 today itself.

3. At the reqeust Mr.Majmudar, stand over to 6 th March, 2024.”

We are constrained to refer to the order dated 16 th February, 2024 passed by a coordinate Bench of this Court in Criminal Appeal No.545 of 2024 relating to the same High Court. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the said order read thus:
“4. We have come across various matters from the High Court of Bombay where the bail/anticipatory bail applications are not being decided expeditiously. We have also come across one matter SLP Crl….@ Diary No.1540/2024 (Ashok Balwant Patil v. Mohan Madhukar Patil and Ors), wherein the application for anticipatory bail was not decided for a period of more than four years.

We have also come across numerous matters wherein the learned Judges are not deciding the matter on merits but find an excuse to shunt the case on different grounds. ” (underline supplied) Issue notice returnable on 5 th April, 2024. We direct the petitioner to produce a copy of this order before the roster Bench when the bail petition is listed on 6 th March, 2024.
We make it clear that notwithstanding pendency of this Special Leave Petition, the High Court is free to proceed with the hearing of the bail petition.

(ANITA MALHOTRA) (AVGV RAMU)
AR-CUM-PS COURT MASTER