Bombay High Court in the case of Mahipati Aatu Jadhav vs State of Maharashtra held by Justice SK Modak while deciding the case observed that in obtaining bail there are two essential elements consisting of first the submission of bail application and second the discretion of the court to grant bail or not and such law can’t be taken away by any law by interpretation the recently passed scheme made by National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) for the under trial release age.

This observation is made by the single bench judge while rejecting a bail application of a 71-year-old man. The application mentions the scheme NALSA which favours prisoners of age above 65 years old. A recommendation was made by the Undertrial Review Committee so that the eligible prisoners can be released from prisons and the scheme launched by NALSA titled “Release_UTRC@75” in July 2022.

In this scheme, different categories are made for both convict and under-trial prisoners, and one such scheme pertains to the release of undertrial prisoners above the age of 65 years old. 

Advocate Hrishikesh R Chavan on the behalf of the applicant urged the court not to look into the matter of the case as it diminishes the aim of NALSA scheme and also informed the court that the session court rejected his application.

Assistant Public Prosecutor NB Patil stated that if the matter of the case doesn’t take into consideration then so many under trial will be released on bail under this scheme.

The High Court observed that the session court took the matter into consideration as it was Section 302 (murder) of IPC and alleged the four more attempted murder cases of witnesses.

The court said – 

“So, the attention of the stakeholders is brought. One can say that the Authorities of DLSA and MSLSA were successful in bringing into the notice of this Court about the case of the Applicant,”

The matter of the case was taken into consideration and not granted bail by the High Court of Bombay High Court.