Conflicting bail orders on Jharkhand HC site; SC closes case

The row over posting of two conflicting bail orders in a case against a former state minister on the official website of the Jharkhand High Court was today closed by the Supreme Court, which expressed satisfaction over the report and the action taken against the errant official.
The high court had in conflicting orders granted bail to former state agriculture minister Yogendra Sao while refusing it to his wife, sitting Congress legislator Nirmala Devi, in a case of violence relating to alleged land acquisition.
The top court said it was "satified" with the report of acting Chief Justice D N Patel of Jharkhand High Court and the disciplinary action taken against the person responsible for the "gross error" of first uploading the conflicting order on high court website and later removing it.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao, which had yesterday perused the report, said it was a case of gross error and the acting chief justice has enquired it from the concerned judge.
"We are satisfied with the report of acting Chief Justice. Necessary disciplinary action has been taken against the staff responsible for the error. Let's give this issue a burial," the bench said.
The court then asked Devi's counsel, who had challenged the high court order refusing her bail, to argue on merit and posted the matter for hearing on December 15.

On November 8, the apex court had asked the acting chief justice to conduct an enquiry into the issue terming it as a "serious matter" which could "bring the administration of justice into disrepute".

It had said the enquiry should be done on the circumstances contradictory orders were passed and how they got uploaded in the high court website and later removed.
The apex court's direction had come on a plea of Nirmala Devi, a legislator from Barkagaon in Jharkhand.
The bench had noted that orders passed by the high court in the two bail applications of Nirmala Devi and Yogendera Sao were in two parts each.
It had said in the case of Nirmala Devi, the parts of the order had similar reasons and concluded that her bail plea be rejected.
While in the case of her husband Yogendra Sao, the first part contained reasons to deny him bail and was signed by the judge who gave the order, it said. However, in the second part of the same order, the judge had given reasons for grant of bail, the top court said.

It was pointed out to the bench that the second part of both orders were initially uploaded on the website of the high court but subsequently removed from there.
Both Devi and Sao were accused in the case relating to violent clashes between villagers and the police in 2016 in which four persons were killed. Sao had became a minister in Hemant Soren government in August 2013.
Devi had led the agitation against National Thermal Power Corporation authorities for their alleged attempt to forcefully evacuate villagers from Barkagaon without giving them due compensation or rehabilitation.