Late Bail orders and Right to Personal Liberty

Subject : Polity

Section: Constitution

Concept :

The Supreme Court has recently held that bail orders should neither be too long and elaborate nor come too late as both violate the constitutional mandate of personal liberty.

Key Highlights

The supreme court highlighted that, while rejecting or granting bail to accused persons, Judges should not slip into extensive deliberations on the merits of the case or evidence involved.
As such long debates at the stage of bail may prejudice the case itself for the accused.
Also, that once a case for bail is reserved for orders, the pronouncement of the decision should not take too long as further waiting is a dent on the personal liberty of an undertrial.
Therefore, the Supreme Court has deprecated the practice of detailed elaboration of evidence in the orders granting/rejecting bail/anticipatory bail and the practice of long delay between reserving the matter for order and pronouncing the order.

About Bail

Bail is the conditional release of a person held under legal custody in matters which are yet to be pronounced by the Court, by undertaking a promise to appear in the Court as and when required.
The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 governs the terms of the bail.
Section 2 (a) of the CrPC,1973 defines the phrases “bailable offense” and “non-bailable offense” even though the Act does not define “bail” expressly.

Different categories of bail:

Bailable offences

Section 2(a) of CrPC categorizes a bailable offence.
It means that an offence that is classified as bailable in the First Schedule of the Code, or which is classified as bailable under any other law.
An accused can claim bail as a matter of right if he is accused of committing a bailable offence.
Under Section 436 of CrPC 1973, a person accused of a bailable offence at any time while under arrest without a warrant and at any stage of the proceedings has the right to be released on bail.

Non-bailable offences

A non-bailable offence is defined as any offence which is not a bailable offence.
A person accused of a non-bailable offence cannot claim bail as a right.
A person accused of non-bailable offences can be granted bail provided the accused does not qualify the following conditions:
There are reasonable grounds to believe that he has committed an offence punishable with death penalty or life imprisonment.
That the accused has committed a cognizable offence and he had been previously convicted of an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment of seven years or more or if the accused been convicted on two or more instances of a cognizable and non-bailable offence.

Types of bails in India:

Regular bail:
The court orders the release of a person who is under arrest, from police custody after paying the amount as bail money.
An accused can apply for regular bail under Section 437 and 439 of CrPC.
Interim bail:
This is a direct order by the court to provide temporary and short term bail to the accused until his regular or anticipatory bail application is pending before the court.
Anticipatory bail:
This is a direct order of Sessions or High Court to provide pre-arrest bail to an accused of a crime.
When the person has an apprehension of being arrested, the person can apply for anticipatory bail.