Violation Of Bail Conditions Akin To Abusing Liberty Granted By Court: Kerala High Court Upholds Order Cancelling Bail

Referring to Apex Court decisions, Justice A. Badharudeen held that the Court granting bail after imposing conditions has the power to cancel the bail order if any of those bail conditions are violated.

“Thus the legal position is well settled. When a Court grants bail after imposing conditions, violation of any of the conditions in a bail order would lead to cancellation of bail by invoking power under Section 439 (2) of Cr.P.C”

In the facts of the case, the Court found that the petitioner who was bound to follow the bail conditions of the Special Court violated it.

“Per contra, in the instant case, the petitioner has been continuing in the bail granted by the Special Court and, therefore, he is bound to obey the conditions, to continue on bail granted without fail. If he violates any conditions imposed in the bail order, that is akin to misuse of the liberty bestowed by the court and the same is a ground for cancellation of bail”, added the Court.

The petitioner was alleged to have committed offences under Section 27(b) of under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (punishment for consumption of a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance) and Section 77 (penalty for giving intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug or psychotropic substance to a child) of the Juvenile Justice Act.

He was granted bail by the Special Court by imposing certain conditions and one condition was that he would not be involved in any other crime during the bail period. However, he was alleged to have committed another offence under the NDPS Act. The prosecution filed a petition to cancel the bail for violation of bail condition and the Special Court cancelled his bail. Aggrieved by this, the petitioner has approached the Court to quash the order cancelling the bail.

The counsel for the petitioner alleged that bail granted by the court during the crime stage cannot be cancelled after filing the final report for violating conditions in the bail order.

The Court relied upon Sreeja Mannangath v State of Kerala (2022) to state the parameters to be observed for cancellation of bail. It also referred to Ajwar v Waseem (2024) to state that the same Court which granted bail to an accused can cancel the bail if there are serious allegations against him although the accused has not misused the bail. It also referred to the considerations for setting aside bail orders.

Accordingly, the Court dismissed the petition and directed the petitioner to surrender before the police. The Court also ordered that the police could arrest and produce the petitioner before the Special Court if he did not surrender.

Counsel for Petitioner: Advocates V.A.Satheesh, V.T.Madhavanunni, Anand V.S

Counsel for Respondents: Senior Public Prosecutor Renjith George

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw Ker 307

Case Title: Sobhin Sunny v State of Kerala

Case Number: CRL.MC NO. 4830 OF 2022

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