View That Default Bail Cannot Be Cancelled On Merits Will Reward Lethargic Investigation : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court, on Monday, held that when special reasons are made out from the chargesheet and the chargesheet reveals commission of non-bailable crime, default bail granted to an accused under proviso to Section 167(2) CrPC can be cancelled.The question that arose in the case was whether default bail can be cancelled after presentation of chargesheet, when it was granted for not filing it within 90 days as per the CrPC.There is no absolute bar that once a person is released on default bail, it cannot be cancelled on merits and grounds like not cooperating with the investigation, observed a bench comprising Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar while directing the Telangana High Court to decide on merits the CBI's plea for cancellation of bail granted to Erra Gangi Reddy in connection with the YS Vivekananda Reddy murder case.A case for cancellation of default bail can be considered by the court if - the defects for which default bail was granted is cured; special and strong reasons are made out from the chargesheet filed subsequent to the enlargement that the accused has committed a non-bailable crime; andconsidering the grounds set out in Section 437(5) and Section 439(2) bail can be cancelled on merits; Mere filing of the chargesheet is not enough to seek cancellation of default bail. "Court cannot be compelled to not consider the gravity of the offence or examine the merits of the case when accused was not released on merits earlier....Mere non filing of chargesheet will not be enough when strong case is made out", Justice MR Shah read out the operative part of the judgment while remanding the matter to the High Court.Factual BackgroundY.S. Vivekananda Reddy, an Indian National Congress leader, was brutally murdered and found at his residence in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh on 15 March 2019. Though initially, a case under Section 174 CrPC was registered, eventually a case under Section 302 read with Section 120B IPC was registered. The State constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which took over the investigation. During the investigation, T.Gangi Reddi was arrested and remanded to judicial custody. After 90 days in judicial custody, he filed for default bail under Section 167 CrPC and the same was allowed by the JMFC, Pulivendula on 27.06.2019. Later, as per the orders of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, CBI was entrusted with the investigation. The final chargesheet was filed on 26.10.2021. It named 4 people including T. Gangi Reddi. In view of the same, the CBI moved the Special Court seeking cancellation of bail granted to Reddi. Thereafter it conducted further investigation, and eventually approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking cancellation of bail. The High Court dismissed the petition on the ground that once Reddi was released on default bail under Section 167(2) CrPC the bail cannot be cancelled on merits. Challenging the order of the High Court the Special Leave Petition has been filed before the Apex Court. The Supreme Court had reserved verdict on the CBI's plea on January 5 after hearing Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj for CBI and Senior Advocate B. Adinarayana Rao for Reddy.Issue before the Supreme CourtWhether after an accused is released on default bail under Section 167(2) Cr.P.C., under which circumstances, his bail can be cancelled and whether bail can be cancelled on merits having found committed non-bailable crime on conclusion of the investigation and filing the chargesheet?Analysis by the Supreme Court At the threshold, the Court noted that when an accused is released on default bail under proviso to Section 167(2) he is released upon furnishing bail bond, because of failure on the part of the investigating agency to complete the investigation and file the chargesheet within the stipulated ninety time. The proviso envisages that the default bail granted would be deemed to be released under provisions of Chapter XXXII CrPC including Section 437 (When bail may be taken in case of non-bailable offence) and Section 439 (Special powers of High Court or Court of Session regarding bail). However, the Court was convinced that bail granted under proviso to Section 167(2) is not an order on merits. Therefore, it observed that the deemed fiction could not have been interpreted to mean that the default bail order is passed on merits. Referring to judgments of the Apex Court, particularly in Aslam Babalal Desai v. State of Maharashtra (1992) 4 SCC 272 and Abdul Basit Alias Raju And Ors. v. Mohd. Abdul Kadir Chaudhary And Anr. (2014) 10 SCC 754 where it had been held that merits which come out in the ‘chargesheet and attending circumstances’ are relevant and on the basis of the same bail can be cancelled but only when strong grounds are made demonstrating commission of non-bailable offence by the prosecution from the chargesheet and not merely on the fact that the chargesheet has been filed subsequent to the enlargement on bail. The Court noted that the accused has relied...

View That Default Bail Cannot Be Cancelled On Merits Will Reward Lethargic Investigation : Supreme Court

Sohini Chowdhury

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