The Kerala High Court has issued guidelines for hearing and disposal of bail applications of undertrial/ remand prisoners who are not covered by Monday’s interim bail order of the Full Bench.
The guidelines included filing of bail applications thorough emails and hearing them through videoconferencing by sessions courts making group call on WhatsApp or Google Duo.
The Principal or Additional District and Sessions Judge holding charge of the district has been made the competent court for receiving and hearing the bail applications send by undertrial or remand prisoners.
According to the Official Memorandum (OM) issued by the High Court, they have to send an email to the official email ID of the court requesting the judge to consider their bail plea. The email should contain the case/crime number, name of the police station, offence alleged, name and address of the accused, advocate's phone number (WhatsApp/ Google Duo).
If permission is granted, the judge will inform the advocate in a reply mail. The advocate shall send by email to the court scanned copies of his/her photo ID card, duly signed bail application and vakalath/memo of appearance. The advocate shall also send in a declaration in his/her official email ID that a copy of the bail application has been served on the public prosecutor.
The judge concerned will assign a temporary number to the bail applications and hear the public prosecutor and the advocate who has filed the application through videoconferencing on the next possible date and time, and will pass an order on the application. A signed copy of the order will be scanned and send thorough email to the advocate and the public prosecutor. The OM is available on the website of the Kerala High Court.
