Summary:
Justice Subramonium Prasad asked this question while hearing a batch of bail pleas of seven accused in the case related to rioting and the eventual murder of Head Constable Rattan Lal during the north-east Delhi riots last year. In the hearing, the court repeatedly questioned the prosecution about the clear absence of one of the accused from the video footage that was being presented as evidence, at which point, Additional Solicitor-General SV Raju argued that the process of identifying someone from video footage is very painstaking and that the mere absence of video identification alone cannot be cause exonerating the accused. The court then asked, referring to the accused in question, whether his liberty should be curtailed given that they had spent 15 months in jail pre-trial despite not having any video evidence connecting him to the mob. In fact, the prosecutor made the argument that in such cases, jail should be the norm and bail the exception. Moreover, the ASG also argued that in such cases where the punishment is death penalty or life imprisonment, bail must not be considered on the triple test..