Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court on Monday declared as “null and void” bail conditions imposed by courts in Odisha requiring accused persons to clean police stations, strongly censuring what it called a “colonial mindset” and “ex facie violation of human rights.”Expressing strong disapproval, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, while initiating a suo motu case, said such “honorous, degrading and humiliating conditions” cannot be sustained in law. The court noted that the controversy stems from a series of cases linked to prolonged protests since 2023 against land acquisition by the Vedanta Group for a proposed bauxite mining project in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts.The SC noted that the protests, largely led by members of adivasi and dalit communities, are alleged to have periodically turned violent. According to the court’s observations, there have been allegations of protesters attacking Vedanta officials during anti-mining demonstrations using traditional weapons such as axes and bows. The escalation led to the criminalisation of the protests, with multiple FIRs registered against demonstrators.It was in several of these cases that courts in Odisha imposed bail conditions directing accused persons to undertake tasks such as cleaning police stations — a practice the Supreme Court has now struck down, stressing that bail conditions must remain reasonable, lawful and respectful of individual dignity.“Such conditions, far from advancing the cause of justice, strike at the dignity of the accused and proceed on the premise of their guilt, which is totally impermissible in law,” the SC said.Among others the SC notes an order of the Orissa high court issued on May 9, 2025, in which the HC asked one Kumeswar Naik to clean the premises of the Kasipur police station in the morning hour (between 6 am and 9 am) for two months from the date of his actual release on bail. Accused of vandalim in Kashipur police staiton, he was arrested on Jan 30, 2025. Naik was part of a 200-strong crowd who protested arrest of an anti-mining activist Kartik Naik. The SC also lists another case in Rayagada where a court gave bail with similar conditions to one Laxman Naik on Dec 16, 2025, adding there were at least six other similar orders between May 2025 and Jan 2026.“This unfortunate condition, in fact, is founded upon the presumption of guilt of the accused, as in a way, a nature of sentence has been awarded to them,” the SC said.Assuming that such conditions were imposed inadvertently or without any premeditated bias, the nature of the condition is so abhorrent, degrading, and unknown to law that it carries the potential to cast a serious aspersion, suggesting that the Odisha judiciary is afflicted by a caste-based bias, the SC said.The SC issued direction to all courts across Odisha to forthwith delete such or similar offending conditions from bail orders and to refrain from substituting them with any analogous requirements. The accused persons shall continue to remain on bail, unencumbered by these impermissible conditions, the court said.The SC also asked all HCs in the country to ensure that a copy of this order is served on every judicial officer within its jurisdiction, accompanied by a clear communication that such conditions shall not be imposed while granting bail under any circumstances.
