SC agrees to hear Centre’s plea for recall of April 26 default bail ruling

The April 26 judgement by a two-judge bench in the case Ritu Chhabaria vs Union of India & Ors., deprecated what is said is the “practice” of investigating agencies filing chargesheet in court even before completion of the probe so as to deny default bail to accused and said that even in such cases, the right of the accused to default bail will not be extinguished.

Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General S V Raju while mentioning an appeal challenging a Delhi High Court order granting bail to an accused in a case probed by the Enforcement Directorate, told the CJI-led bench that the HC had based its decision on the SC judgement in the Ritu Chhabaria case.

Mehta said investigative agencies are duty-bound to file chargesheet in 60 or 90 days as the case may be and that under section 173(8) of CrPC, they can seek further investigation.

“Every investigation cannot be completed within 60 days,” he said.

ASG Raju drew the court’s attention to the implications of the ruling, especially in cases where there are more than one accused and investigation is complete only against some and is pending against others. He pointed out that applications were being filed across the country citing the April 26 ruling.

Mehta said the decision in Ritu Chhabaria is per incuriam as it has failed to consider the prior binding decision of a co-equal bench in the case, Dinesh Dalmia vs CBI, “which lays down a contrary principle of law, which has held the field for the past 16 years”.

It is also contrary to the decision of a larger bench in Vipul Shital Prasad Agarwal vs State of Gujarat and Another, he added.

The SG added that 15 applications had already been filed before various courts across the country based on the Ritu Chhabaria decision and urged the court to say the same may not be relied on till the court takes up the matter on May 4. However, the CJI said that it will be far fetched to say that a judgment be not relied upon.

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