City judge clears 111 bail pleas in one day

BENGALURU: A sessions court judge who is dealing exclusively with cases of crimes against women in the city, created a record of sorts on January 1 by disposing of 111 bail applications in a single day. Of all the bail pleas that were heard, 47 were rejected. These include both regular and anticipatory bail petitions.
This is said to be a rare instance in the judiciary wherein such a huge number of orders were pronounced in a day as it involves a lengthy exercise.

Judge Gopal of the 72nd Additional City Civil and Sessions Court delivered his judgments after marathon hearing of arguments for about 10 days. When he took charge of the court on November 22, about 375 bail applications were pending since 2015-end.

Sources in the judiciary said Gopal is known for speedy disposal of cases as evident from his track record. For instance, while he was working in the family court in Belagavi, Gopal used to dispose of 140-180 cases every month. These included maintenance/permanent alimony in divorce cases, restitution of conjugal rights,etc. Even in his previous posting at the Lokayukta Special Court in the city, the judge had sent out a strong message by convicting the accused in 70% of the cases during his 18-month tenure.

Gopal was posted to the newly designated court by the high court a month ago to try the pending cases of crimes against women. These include dowry deaths, abetment of suicide, domestic violence, etc. Earlier, there was only one court to try such cases and hence there was delay in their disposal, a source in city civil court said.

How fast is the judge?

On how quickly judge Gopal dealt with cases when he was posted in the Lokayukta Special Court, Public Prosecutor D Ramesh Babu said he had ordered conviction in the maximum number of trap and raid cases registered by the Lokayukta police under Prevention of Corruption Act. During his 18-month tenure, Gopal brought up for trial cases registered even in 2017, he pointed out.

408 cases for trial

After disposal of the bail applications, the judge has now taken up 408 cases for trial and has begun framing of charges, a judicial officer said.