Patna High Court Directs Advocates, Litigants To Mention Details Of Previous Bail Applications & Orders In All Bail Applications

In view of the recent directive issued by the Supreme Court in the case of Kusha Duruka v/s. The State of Odisha 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 47, the Patna High Court has directed all the Advocate(s)/Party-in-Person(s)/Litigant(s) to mandatorily mention the following particulars in the application(s) filed for grant of bail including the application for suspension of sentence:

1. Details and copies of order(s) passed in the earlier bail application(s) filed by the petitioner which have been already decided.
2. Details of any bail application(s) filed by the petitioner, which is pending either in any court, below the court in question or the higher court, and if none is pending, a clear statement to that effect has to be made.
3. All ball applications filed by the different accused in the same FIR shall be listed before the same Judge who had earlier heard the application of an accused (decided on merit or disposed of as withdrawn/not pressed) Irrespective of the availability of Roster except in cases where the Judge has superannuated or has been transferred or otherwise Incapacitated to hear the matter. Earlier ball applications which have been disposed of by more than one Hon'ble Bench, the application shall be tied-up with the available Junior most Hon'ble Judge.
4. Details shall be mentioned on the top of the bail application or any other place which is clearly visible, that the application for bail is either first, second or third and so on.

Furthermore, the Registry of the court is directed to provide a comprehensive report on decided or pending bail applications related to the crime case in question, using the court's system. This reporting system also extends to cases of private complaints where no F.I.R number is available.

Additionally, the existing instructions concerning applications under Section 482 Cr.P.C. are to follow a similar listing procedure as outlined in the court's Notice dated 26.9.2022, in accordance with the above directives.

In Kusha Duruka v. State of Odisha, the Supreme Court issued directions for comprehensive disclosure of previous pending and decided bail applications to streamline the proceedings and avoid anomalies in new bail applications. The Apex Court further directed its Registry to annex to bail applications a report of previous decided or pending bail applications.

The Apex Court also reiterated the requirement for listing all bail applications arising from the same FIR before the same judge, as previously directed in Pradhani Jani v. State of Odisha. Pursuant to that case, the Bombay HC earlier issued a notice that bail applications arising from the same FIR shall be placed before the same judge. However, the HC clarified that this will not apply if the judge who decided the first bail application is having a different assignment or is part of a Division Bench.

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