Trial Courts Not Mentioning Date Of Arrest Of Accused In Bail Order A "Significant Oversight": Rajasthan High Court

Rajasthan High Court has criticized a "commonly observed" practice of Trial Courts in not mentioning the date of arrest of the accused while deciding the fate of their bail applications.

In the case at hand, bench of Justice Rajendra Prakash Soni was dealing with an order rejecting bail of the petitioners in an NDPS case, opining it as being passed in a causal manner for not mentioning the date of his arrest.

It observed,

“The date of arrest of accused is an integral and crucial part of a bail order but the Presiding Officer did not consider it appropriate to mention it in the order rejecting the bail. This omission is significant oversight.”

The petitioners were accused and arrested under NDPS Act after having being found to be in possession of 7 gms of contraband smack and 7 Kgs of contraband poppy straw. It was the case of the petitioners that since the quantity of recovery was below the commercial quantity, the petitioners should be released on bail.

Agreeing with the argument put forth by the counsel for the Petitioners, the Court decided to accept the bail petitions and grant bail to the petitioners and observed the significant oversight on part of Trial Court to the effect of not mentioning the date of arrest of the Petitioners.

The Court highlighted that consideration of the date of arrest of the Petitioners was an important aspect which remained incomplete. And such lapse resulted in the order of the bail rejection lacking requisite judicial rigour and depth and fell short of acceptable standards.

It was also held that the issue was not limited to the present case but was observed in large number of cases that came forth the Court.

Accordingly, the Court directed the registrar of the Court to place the order before the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court for issuing requisite circular in this regard, if deemed appropriate.

Title: Kamal Kishore v State of Rajasthan and other petition

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 270

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