Bombay HC: Seeking Bail When Not In Custody Is Arbitrary Practice

CASE AT HAND

• Recently, three applicants, namely, the mother, and her two daughters were accused of abetting the suicide of the daughter-in-law/sister-in-law.
• The applicants owing to this approached the Court seeking anticipatory bail which was denied in every court till the Supreme Court directed the woman to “surrender and apply for regular bail” within 4 weeks.
• They approached the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Shirur to surrender and apply for bail at the same time. The JMFC rejected their bail application, pursuant to which the applicants approached the Sessions Court.
• After being rejected at JMFC, they approached the High Court.

THE SUBMISSIONS TO THE COURT

• In this casethe applicants contended that they are ladies.
• The case is falsely fabricated against them.
• They need not be in custody as the investigation is complete.

THE COURTS OBSERVATIONS

• The Bench headed by Justice Prakash D Naik observed that prima facie the applicants provoked the deceased to an extreme degree and hence their custody was paramount for the purpose of facilitating investigation.
• Justice Naik observed that seeking bail right after surrendering without subjecting themselves to serious investigation is an abuse of the process of law and thus denied the bail application.
• The Court observed that the application did not state that under what provision of law relief was sought before the same Court which had rejected the application for bail with taking into consideration the merits.
• The Court noted that the applicants had surrendered before the JMFC which meant the applicants were already in judicial custody.
• Consequently, the question of “again surrendering” before the Sessions or the High Court did not arise at all.
• The applicants were granted leave to file for bail before the JMFC, which will be dealt as per the law.

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