Bail in Offence Punishable with Life Imprisonment:

Though the statute do not specifically prohibit the Magistrate from granting bail in sessions triable cases.  There seems to be some unwritten law culled from various decisions of the Supreme court that, in sessions triable case Magistrates do not grant bail.

Sec.437 premits that, Court  may release the accused on bail in the offence punishable for life or death,if the offender is under the age of sixteen or sick / infirm or woman.According to sec.437(3) court may impose condition which the court consider necessary.But  now a days no court dare to use their power. Magistrate pass the order that offence is exclusively trial by court of session hence bail application is rejected.

Thank you Anil and Sunil, there appears to be divergent views of different High Courts on the matter, but in a given case though the case is imprisonmnt for Life and exclusively triable by a court of session, if there is absolutely no grounds to believe by the Magistrate that the accused comitted an offence punishable with life, can he grant bail to the accused under 437 CrPc?

Yes Sir he can.

Thank you Arvind.

NANDKUMAR B.SAWANT.M.COM.LL.B.(MUMBAI),ADVOCATE

MOBILE.09271971251,

e.mail.adv.nbsawant@yahoo.co.in

e.mail.nandkumarbs@sify.com

1.IN CASE OF OFFENCE TRIABLE BY COURT OF SESSIONS ONLY DUE TO PUNISHMENT IS LIFE IPRISONMENT, IN SUCH CASES COURT OF SESSIONS AND HIGH COURT CAN GRANT BAIL. .COURT OF JUDICIAL MAGISTRATE HAS NO JURISDICTION TO GRANT BAIL.PLEASE NOTE

Sir He can if therse is conditions like as provided in proviso. (Old person or sik). Just see The word "Officer" is also used.

There is no bar on granting bail by the magistrate. but, the normal practice is that a magistrate does not grant bail when he is not empowered to try the offence.