Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.439 – Special powers of High Court or Court of Session regarding bail – Scope of – Adjudication of bail application – High Court directed the Director of Narcotics Control Bureau to pay ₹5 lakh as compensation to the appellant for alleged wrongful confinement for four months in a matter of possession of narcotic substances – Correctness:
Held: Grant of compensation to the tune of Rs.5,00,000/- was without the authority of law – Jurisdiction conferred upon a Court u/s.439 is limited to grant or refusal of bail pending trial – Application for bail filed before the High Court had become infructuous since the District Court had already released the respondent – Straightforward course of action that ought to have been adopted, was that the bail application would have been dismissed as such – No occasion arose for the Court to pass an order delving into the aspects of impermissibility of retesting and/or wrongful confinement – Not only was the same outside the bounds, but it is erroneous on a further count that since the application was infructuous, the exercise of jurisdiction was entirely unjustified and contrary to law – Undue restriction of liberty, without the backing of procedures established by law is unquestionably an affront to a person’s rights but the avenues to seek recourse of law in connection therewith are limited to remedies as per law, however, none was availed in the instant facts – Thus, order of the High Court, to the extent of granting compensation, is set aside. [Paras 6, 7, 9, 10]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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