Anticipatory Bail Order Continues Till End Of Trial Except In Special And Peculiar Circumstances: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court recently observed that an anticipatory bail order can continue till the end of the trial unless there are some special or peculiar features necessitating the court to limit the tenure of anticipatory bail.

The bench of Justice Karunesh Singh Pawar observed this while setting aside an order passed by the lower court, on July 13, 2022, rejecting an application filed by an accused to treat the anticipatory bail granted by the High Court as regular bail.

In its order rejecting the application of the accused, the Civil Judge (Junior Division)/F.T.C.-I, Gautam Budh Nagar observed that the anticipatory bail granted by the High Court was to continue only up to the stage of submission of the charge sheet.

Challenging this very order, the Accused (booked under sections 323, 308, 452, 506 I.P.C) moved to the High Court arguing that the order of the trial court was perverse and contrary to the order passed by this Court.

At the outset, the Court observed that the accused was granted anticipatory bail by the High Court on March 17, 2020, with certain conditions, namely:

- He shall not make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer or tampering with the evidence.

- He shall not pressurize/ intimidate the prosecution witness.

- He shall appear before the trial court on each date fixed unless personal presence is exempted.

Against this backdrop, the Court noted that the conditions provided while granting anticipatory bail to the applicant made it clear that the anticipatory bail granted by the High Court was intended to operate till the conclusion of the trial. Therefore, the Court concluded that the impugned order rejecting the application of the accused without even giving any reason was perverse and was liable to be set aside.

In this regard, the Court also referred to the Apex Court's ruling in the case of Sushila Aggarwal and others vs. State (NCT of Delhi) and others (2020)5 SCC 1, wherein the Top Court had held that anticipatory bail should not invariably be limited to a fixed period, however, if there are any special or peculiar features necessitating the court to limit the tenure of anticipatory bail, it is open for it to do so.

Consequently, the impugned order was set aside and the matter was remanded back to the court below to pass a fresh order in the light of the law settled by the Supreme Court in the case of Sushila Aggarwal's case (supra).

In related news, while hearing an application seeking anticipatory bail, the Supreme Court of India on Thursday stated that it can't be set for a limited time frame. "How can an anticipatory bail be limited to four weeks?!", asked a Bench of Justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

The Bench was hearing an appeal filed by politician Monirul Islam challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court that had granted him anticipatory bail in 2021, limiting it to four weeks only.

Read more about the Case here: Anticipatory Bail Can't Be Set For A Limited Period, Supreme Court Says

Case title - Bhagat Singh v. State of UP. [APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 27731 of 2022]

Case Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (AB) 513

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