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The Supreme Court has said the High Courts are not subordinate to the top court as it rejected a plea seeking direction by the Allahabad High Court to expeditiously decide the bail application filed by a convict in a rape case of a minor.

A bench of Justices C T Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal dismissed a writ petition by Veeru, saying that if he is aggrieved by the delay in consideration of the bail application, he has to take recourse to appropriate steps before the High Court. 

"This Court has, time and again, stated and reiterated that High Courts are not subordinate Courts of the Supreme Court of India. In that view of the matter, there cannot be any doubt with respect to the fact that the prayer made in the writ petition cannot be entertained in this writ petition," the bench said.

The petitioner sought an order or direction expediting the disposal of the bail application in criminal appeal titled ‘Veeru vs State of UP.’

The bench, however, said, "There is nothing in this writ petition which would reveal that the petitioner, who is a convict for the offence under Section 376, IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act, has taken appropriate steps to get the application for bail posted for early hearing after it was adjourned on earlier occasions."

The court junked the writ petition and granted liberty to the petitioner.

In a similar plea by Ganpat for a direction to the Allahabad High Court to decide his criminal appeal pending since 2016 or grant him bail by suspending his sentence, the Supreme Court has said one cannot question delay in a pending criminal appeal by a filing a writ petition alleging violation of fundamental right.

"There is no provision in Chapter-IV (titled The Union Judiciary) under Part-V (The Union) of the Constitution of India which, in terms similar to Article 227 of the Constitution (Power of superintendence over all courts by the High Court) under Chapter-V thereof, confers power of superintendence on the Supreme Court over the High Courts," the bench has said.

The court has said if the priority has not been given to the petitioner’s criminal appeal (albeit filed in 2016) by the High Court for early hearing, for whatever reason, the same is also part of the judicial process and cannot be made amenable to a challenge in a writ petition under Article 32 citing breach of Article 21 of the Constitution.