India, Sept. 8 -- The Supreme Court on Monday voiced concern over what it described as a "regular practice" at the Kerala high court of entertaining anticipatory bail pleas directly, without requiring litigants to first approach the sessions court.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta remarked that such a departure from the hierarchy laid down in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and its successor, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), was unusual and not seen in any other high court.

"One issue which is bothering us is that in the Kerala high court there seems to be a regular practice that it accepts anticipatory bail directly without the litigator approaching the sessions court first. Why is that so? There is...