The Apex Court in Suleman v. State of Uttar Pradesh urged the Allahabad High Court to decide the bail applications of the convicts serving sentences for over 10 years, pending as of 22.04.2022 before the next hearing i.e. on 25th July 2022 and also suggested that if need may arise, the vacation bench could also decide these matters in order to adhere to the deadline. 

To curb pendency, the Supreme Court also suggested that the High Court may "..... also facilitate posting all of the matters at one go and asking the counsels appearing for the convicts whether they would be satisfied with cases being considered for remission or would also like to urge the matter in appeal. This may help in clearing the backlog of some appeals."

The report reflected that 727 convicts have been in prison for more than 14 years and 834 convicts for 10-14 years. Out of these 1561 convicts, 640 convicts' bail applications have been already disposed of; bail applications of 571 convicts in pending appeals have been disposed of from 30.03.2022 to 22.04.2022. But, 350 bail applications of convicts in jail for 10 years or more, are pending as on 22.04.2022. Out of these 350 bail applications pending, 159 are filed by convicts incarcerated for more than 14 years and 191 for convicts incarcerated for 10-14 years.

The Court said, "We see no reason why these cases are not dealt with in one go by asking the State Government to take a stand in respect of such cases which are single offence cases and pending for 10 years or more and unless there are special circumstances, all of them can be enlarged on bail."

“ We would like a closure to all these matters of bail before the next date as the matters are directed to be taken up in one go. If required these matters can also be dealt with by the Vacation Benches.”