On Monday, the Bombay high court said the late Jesuit priest, Fr Stan Swamy, accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case, had “rendered services to society”.
Addressing the issue of undertrials languishing for long in prisons, the HC said, “(We) cannot keep aside humane considerations while deciding medical bail applications.”
“We have respect for his work. Legally, whatever was there against him is (a) different matter,” a bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice N J Jamadar said while hearing Stan Swamy’s counsel on the need for a detailed inquiry into the run-up to his death. It observed that he was “wonderful,” “the kind of services he rendered to the society.”
Justice Shinde added that he usually has no time to watch TV, but saw the online funeral service for Stan Swamy.
“It was very dignified and graceful. Such graciously and honorably they performed it.”
Stan Swamy, 84, died on July 5 while he was in a hospital in Bandra, having undergone treatment and having been cured of Covid-19 following his admission. The Justice Shinde-led bench had on May 28 directed that the tribal rights activist from Ranchi be shifted immediately to the private hospital from prison.
“How many years people will have to languish in jails? Not only this case but others also?” asked the bench on Monday. Senior counsel Mihir Desai, representing the late Stan Swamy, requested the HC to allow Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, former St Xavier’s college principal, to participate in the legally mandated magisterial inquiry into the death, as his next of kin and that the report be submitted to the HC. “What has to be considered is what led to the cause of his death,” said Desai.
The high court judge said that it had no control over what people may say outside the courtroom but expressed that it had ensured that the accused Fr Stan, who was ailing, was given medical attention.
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