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(ii) The order passed by this Court has taken away the right of the appellants to file a petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution and thereby judicial review, which is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution, has been violated which even Parliament cannot violate;

(vii) The prohibition in granting a stay under Section 19(3)(c) of the PC Act is not absolute and in an appropriate case, a stay of proceedings could be granted in favour of an accused person particularly when there is a failure of justice. Any restrictive reading would entail a fetter on the discretion of the High Court which itself might lead to a failure of justice.” This Court referred to the judgment in Amar Nath (supra) and then to the Statement of Objects and Reasons for introducing 397(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure which, inter alia, stated as follows:

18. Insofar as petitions under Articles 226 and 227 are concerned, they form part of the basic structure of the Constitution as has been held in L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India and others, (1997) 3 SCC 261 at 301. Here again, the judgment of a Constitution Bench in Kartar Singh v. State of Punjab, (1994) 3 SCC 569 at 714, puts it very well when it says:
“Though it cannot be said that the High Court has no jurisdiction to entertain an application for bail under Article 226 of the Constitution and pass orders either way, relating to the cases under the Act 1987, that power should be exercised sparingly, that too only in rare and appropriate cases in extreme circumstances. But the judicial discipline and comity of courts require that the High Courts should refrain from exercising the extraordinary jurisdiction in such matters.” This aspect of Kartar Singh (supra) has been followed in Girish Kumar Suneja (supra) in paragraph 40 thereof and we respectfully concur with the same. In view of the aforesaid discussion, it is clear that the Delhi High Court judgment’s conclusions in paragraph 33 (a), (b) and (d) must be set aside.