Bail pleas must be taken up expeditiously: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The liberty of an individual is "sacrosanct" and an application seeking bail must be taken up for hearing as expeditiously as possible, the Supreme Court has said.

No time limit can be fixed for applications seeking pre-arrest or post-arrest bail but the minimal which can be expected is that such pleas be heard at the earliest, the apex court said.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and A S Oka said this while hearing a plea filed by an accused, who was taken into custody in March this year in connection with a case registered at Patiala district in Punjab, urging the court that his application seeking bail which is pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court be heard expeditiously.

The bench noted that a sessions court had dismissed the bail application filed by the accused after which he had filed a plea seeking post-arrest bail before the high court on July 7.

The petitioner's counsel told the bench that the matter was listed before the court several times but it could not be heard.