Supreme Court To Issue Guidelines On Grant Of Bail On Filing Of Chargesheet

The Supreme Court may lay down some guidelines on the aspect of grant of bail on charge sheet being filed.

It is deemed appropriate that some guidelines may be laid down so that the Courts are better guided and not troubled with the aspect of bail on charge sheet being filed, the bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh observed while considering a special leave petition.

ASG S.V. Raju submitted that he will submit certain suggested guidelines after deliberations with Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra.

The bench will take up the matter on 10th October 2021.

In Siddharth vs. State of Uttar Pradesh, the court had held that Section 170 of the Cr.P.C. that it does not impose an obligation on the Officer-in-charge to arrest each and every accused at the time of filing of the charge sheet. It was observed that the practice of some Trial Courts of insisting on the arrest of an accused as a pre-requisite formality to take the charge-sheet on record is misplaced and contrary to the very intent of Section 170 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Recently in Aman Preet Singh vs. CBI, the court observed that, while accepting charge-sheet, the Magistrate or the Court is required to invariably issue a process of summons and not warrant of arrest. It was also observed that, if an accused in a non-bailable offence has been enlarged and free for many years and has not even been arrested during investigation, it would be contrary to the governing principles for grant of bail to suddenly direct his arrest merely because charge sheet has been filed.

Case: SATENDER KUMAR ANTIL vs. CBi ; SLP(Crl.) No. 5191/2021 

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