'Chilling effect on me': Upset at Supreme Court remarks, Allahabad HC judge says won’t hear bail petitions

LUCKNOW: Justice Pankaj Bhatia of Allahabad HC’s Lucknow bench expressed unwillingness on Friday to be part of the bail roster anymore after Supreme Court castigated the manner in which he had granted bail. Justice Bhatia said although it was well known that there was “no judge who can claim that his order has never been set aside or interfered with”, the SC’s observations “had a huge demoralising and chilling effect on me”.

The order came in the course of hearing a bail plea filed by Rakesh Tiwari. As the case was put up before Justice Bhatia, he took notice of the SC remarks passed in the case of Chetram Verma on Feb 9.

In that case, Justice Bhatia had on Oct 10 last year granted bail to a man accused of killing his wife over dowry.

The complainant, Verma, had challenged the bail order before SC, which set aside Justice Bhatia’s ruling with serious remarks. The SC had said, “The impugned order of Oct 10, 2025, is one of the most shocking and disappointing orders that we have come across.” The apex court had noted that the HC had only considered that the accused had been in jail since July 27, 2025, and had no criminal history, and then granted him bail.

“What weighed with the high court in exercising its discretion in favour of the accused for the purpose of grant of bail in a very serious crime like dowry death,” SC had asked. After quashing the high court ruling, SC had sent the copy to the Allahabad HC Chief Justice for him to peruse the manner in which the order on the bail application was passed.

Upset, Justice Bhatia refused to hear the a bail application and requested the HC’s CJ not to allocate him bail matters for hearing.