When victim/informant/aggrieved party can be heard by court in hearing for grant of Anticipatory bail application?
I am of the view that in the absence of any provisions in Cr.P.C. in
debarring
an informant or de facto complainant or victim or an
aggrieved party an opportunity of hearing in an application for
anticipatory bail but keeping in view the criminal justice delivery
system and public policy, it can be held as follows:-
i. There is no mandate in law to issue notice to the
informant/victim/aggrieved
party
by
the
Court
before
passing any interim order or final order in an application for
anticipatory bail.
ii. While adjudicating an anticipatory bail application, if the
court
feels
that
the
informant/de
facto
complainant/
victim/aggrieved party is required to be heard for an
effective adjudication, then the Court can issue notice to
such person for giving him a reasonable opportunity of
hearing.
iii. If
the
informant/de
facto
complainant/victim/aggrieved
party suo motu appears in Court in an application for
anticipatory bail either to support or oppose such application
and prays before the Court to give him an opportunity of
39
hearing, the Court may accept such prayer if it feels the
necessity of hearing such person in the interest of justice
and for the just decision of the case.
iv. The
counsel
for
the
informant/de
facto
complainant/
victim/aggrieved party can always appear during hearing of
the anticipatory bail application and assist the State Counsel
even if he is not awarded a right of audience in the matter
by the Court. He can also assist the court if any query is put
forth to him.
v. Where it appears that there are lot of aggrieved persons and
all of them pray before the Court to give them an
opportunity of hearing in an application of anticipatory bail,
the Court may be reluctant to give them such opportunity if
it feels that it would be a time consuming affair or in view of
the time constraints, it would not be feasible to give each of
them an opportunity of hearing or it would delay the
disposal of such application. However if the Court feels in
such cases to hear one of the aggrieved parties who can
highlight the common grievances of all which is not properly
addressed by the State Counsel, the Court can give an
opportunity of hearing to such party.
vi. No particular category of cases can be enumerated as to
where the informant/de facto complainant/ victim/aggrieved
party can be given an opportunity of hearing in an
application for anticipatory bail in as much as it would
depend upon the nature and gravity of the offences as well
as the discretion of the Court which is to be exercised
judiciously with reasonable care and caution.
vii.If a person is neither an informant nor victim but claim
himself to be an aggrieved party and prays for an
opportunity of hearing, the Court has to decide whether
such person is an aggrieved party in the context of the case
or not and if so, whether a right of hearing is to be given to
him or not to take a right decision in the matter.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA, CUTTACK.
BLAPL NO. 19817 OF 2014
An application under section 438 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure.
-Versus-
.........
Pramod Kumar Panda
P R E S E N T :-
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE S.K. SAHOO
.
Date of Judgment-15.12.2014
Citation; 2015 ALLMR (CRI)JOURNAL289
https://www.lawweb.in/2015/07/when-victiminformantaggrieved-party-can.html
