The Supreme Court has said that it cannot allow an accused person to remain confined in a prison for a long time without a trial, PTI reported on Saturday.

“We can’t permit the situation to prevail where the person is kept in incarceration for a long period of time with the trial hardly to commence,” the court said in an order passed earlier this week.

A bench of Justices SK Kaul and PS Narasimha was hearing a narcotics case in which 414 kilograms of ganja had been allegedly seized.

The two persons were booked under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 2018. The had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court after the Calcutta High Court denied them bail in November 2021.

In its order, the High Court had directed the trial court to take all efforts to complete the stage of consideration of the charges against them, PTI reported. It had also directed the authorities to complete the trial within a reasonable time, considering the detention period of the petitioners.

This week, the Supreme Court bench granted them bail.

The bench observed that the first witness of the prosecution in the case is yet to be examined, PTI reported.

The bench, however, mentioned that if the accused persons seek to delay the trial, the trial court is allowed to “put back the appellants into incarceration”.

It directed the accused persons to remain present on all dates fixed by the trial court for proceedings. Their advocates were told to not seek unnecessary adjournments as well.

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