Bail – Grant of – When not justified – FIR filed against Respondent No.2-accused u/ss.147, 148, 302, 304 and 34, IPC alleging that along with his two sons he committed the murder of appellant’s father – Eventually, bail granted by High Court – Propriety: Held: High Court relied upon a decision of another co-ordinate Bench in the case of Prabhat Gangwar wherein it was held that in an application for grant of bail, the Court is competent to set an accused on liberty to afford him an opportunity to frame his defence and gather evidence, to enable him to refute the prosecution case and establish his innocence – However, the Court cautioned that such liberty on the said ground cannot be applied mechanically and requires to be considered in the facts and circumstances of each case – All relevant facts including the evidence on record, conduct of the accused during the investigation as well as the trial have to be adverted to before enlarging the accused on bail – The view expressed in Prabhat Gangwar may be applied in rare cases but in the light of the observations made therein – However, the High Court failed to evaluate the facts and circumstances of the present case especially the conduct of the accused and granted bail solely on the ground that further incarceration will deprive the accused from an effective defence strategy – Although, no such basis was set out by Respondent No.2 for seeking bail as to what kind of defence strategy and the evidence that was required to be collected or what were the special facts and circumstances of the case which required this kind of indulgence – Impugned order erroneous, set aside. [Paras 4, 5, 8]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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