Kathmandu, April 12 An extended seven-member full bench of the Supreme Court has set a landmark precedent allowing defendants who have been imposed a jail sentence not exceeding 10 years to post bail during pending appeals. According to the full text of the verdict delivered in a case filed by Shashi Kanta Tiwari, a resident of Rautahat, against the government, defendants in a criminal case could post bail in certain cases during pending appeals as stated in Section 194 of Court Proceedings Chapter of General Code. “This does not mean that everybody who has been imposed jail sentence can post bail during pending appeals,” the SC observed in its verdict. The SC added that if bail was denied to those who filed review petition and permission for review, then it would be a case of miscarriage of justice. In this case, defendant Tiwari, who had got bail from the trial and appellate courts, was denied bail by the SC registrar following which he filed the case. The SC registrar had stated that he could not be given bail, as he was filing a review petition. The SC also observed that the court could deny bail in cases listed under Section 194 (4) and (5). Section 194 will apply when a person claims that s/he was not given a chance to contest the case and principle of natural justice was not followed in his/her case. Section 194 states that the appeals court and the Supreme Court can deny bail to defendants if there is a possibility that they may flee or tamper with evidence or commit other offences. The court may deny bail to those convicted of certain cases that carry a jail term of more than one year, such as corruption, black marketing, profiteering, hoarding or adulteration and some other cases. Advocate Kedar Prasad Dahal, who pleaded  on behalf of the defendant, said the extended full bench of the SC quashed its previous verdict in this case delivered on December 11, 2016, and upheld that defendants of criminal cases wishing to file petition and review petitions would also have the opportunity to post bail for filing memorandum of appeals. “In the past, defendants could file appeals only after going to jail to serve their sentence,” Dahal said and added that the SC’s new verdict was based on the principle of hearing the litigant before deciding whether s/he should be sent to jail. He said there was an argument that if convicts were allowed to get bail easily, they could pose challenge to society and the stakeholders should address their concerns too. Former justice of SC Balaram KC said the verdict was positive, as it upheld that a person was presumed innocent until proven guilty. The verdict was delivered on August 16 by a seven-member extended full bench of the Supreme Court led by former chief justice Gopal Parajuli. Other members of the bench were justices Deepak Raj Joshee, Om Prakash Mishra, Cholendra Shamsher JB Rana, Deepak Kumar Karki, Kedar Prasad Chalise and Sarada Prasadh Ghimire.