1) An accused filed a petition before High Court u/s 438 CrPC for an alleged offence u/s 376 IPC. High Court granted interim bail till perusal of the case diary and directed the accused to appear before arresting authority within 10 days and in such an event the arresting authority shall release him on bail.
2) With that order, the accused appeared before Investigating Officer, who informed that the case has already been chargesheeted against the accused as absconder.
3) Then the accused appeared before the commiting Court, before expiry the 10 days fixed by the High Court and prayed for regular bail. The commiting Court refused to grant the relief of bail to the accused on following grounds:
(a) The offence is exclussively triable by Sessions Court only;
(b) The case was chargesheeted by showing the accused as absconder;
(c) The order of the High Court was directed to the arresting authority only and the Court is not an arresting authority as such the Court is not bound by it;
My question before the learned members is, whether the order passed by the commiting Court by refusing to grant bail to the accused was legal. Please provide suitable precedents in respect of the grounds for rejection, especially on the ground: whether a Court is an arresting authority or not.
