Don’t grant bail in a casual manner, SC cautions courts

In serious offences like murder, a court cannot grant bail to an in a casual manner without considering the pros and cons of releasing the accused, the Supreme Court has said.

In serious offences like murder, a court cannot grant bail to an in a casual manner without considering the pros and cons of releasing the accused, the Supreme Court has said.

A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P Sathasivam said it was essential for a court to indicate in its order the reasons for prima facie concluding why bail was being granted particularly where an accused was charged of having committed a serious offence.

The apex court passed the order while quashing the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to a man convicted to life imprisonment in a murder case.

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Citing its earlier rulings, the apex court said factors like nature of accusation, severity of punishment, reasonable apprehension of the accused’s propensity to tamper the evidence and prima facie satisfaction of the court in support of the charge should be considered while granting the bail.

In this case, family members of the deceased Shiv Kumar filed the appeal against the High Court’s decision to grant bail to the main accused who was convicted to life imprisonment for murder.

Though the family opposed the bail, the High Court granted the bail without citing proper justification for it.

The accused had sought the bail on the ground that the decision on an appeal filed by him against the life sentence would take a long time.

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The apex court while rejecting the argument said there is a need to indicate in the order reasons for prima facie concluding why bail was being granted particularly where an accused was charged of having committed a serious offence.

“As the extracted portion and the High Court’s order goes to show there was completed non-application of mind and non-consideration of the relevant aspects. The impugned order (bail), therefore is not sustainable and is dismissed,” the bench observed while canceling the bail and remitting the matter back to the High Court.