Sethi, J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) For the murder of her daughter-in-law, Prem Bai, the appellant was tried with others and after the conclusion of the trial, sentenced to imprisonment for life vide judgment of the Court dated 27th February, 1997. The appeal filed by her is pending in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh and not listed for hearing till date. Her prayer for grant of bail, pending disposal of the appeal, on the grounds of infirmity and old age has been rejected by the High Court vide the order impugned in this appeal.
(3.) At the time of preliminary hearing on 1-12-2000, the learned Senior Counsel Shri Anoop G. Chaudhary submitted that the position in the Madhya Pradesh High Court regarding criminal appeals pending before the Division Bench was that as on that day appeals of 1989-1990 have only been taken up. The appeal filed by the appellant, being an appeal of 1997, there was no reasonable chance for its being brought on Board. Distressed by such a situation allegedly prevailing in the High Court, we called for the report of the Registrar of the Madhya Pradesh High Court (Jabalpur) as to the position of the criminal appeals pending before the Division Bench and the possibility of this 1997 appeal to be heard in the near future, vide his reply dated 23rd January, 2000, the Registrar has intimated as under : "I am to inform you that as per the practice prevalent in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh cases are listed for final hearing seniority-wise. Accordingly, at present at the Main Seat at Jabalpur, Criminal Appeals instituted in the year 1989 and 1990 are being listed before the Division Bench (Criminal), sitting regularly. However, some times courts do allow applications for early hearing. In that case even Criminal Appeals instituted in the later years are heard. As such Criminal Appeal No. 708/97 is unlikely to be heard in near future in the normal course, unless an application for early hearing is moved by a party and allowed by the Court." ;