Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, March 23
In a significant judgment liable to change the way interim regular bail is granted to accused in criminal cases, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that extraordinary concession cannot be granted in a routine manner in the absence of any exceptional ground.
The direction by Justice Manoj Bajaj came on a plea filed by an accused, against the state and other respondents, for anticipatory bail in a case registered in December 2020 under the provisions of the NDPS Act in Moga.
Appearing before the Bench, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that the recovered contraband was marginally above the non-commercial quantity. As such, the accused should be released on bail as the trial was likely to take considerable time to conclude.
The state counsel, on the other hand, produced before the Bench the petitioner’s custody certificate, indicating that he was an under trial in a similar case registered in April 2019 under the NDPS Act. He also prayed for dismissal of the petition as the recovered quantity of heroin was commercial in nature.
Justice Bajaj asserted the court found that interim regular bail was granted on the strength of an order dated September 1, 2021, passed in some other case. It had no relevance with the present FIR, but it was necessary to note that extraordinary concession could not be granted if exceptional ground was non-existent.
Unforeseen emergency
Justice Manoj Bajaj of the HC asserted that concession could only be granted in consideration of some unforeseen emergency, such as illness of an accused, bereavement in family or “any such circumstance”.
Concession for interim bail only on exceptional ground, rules Punjab and Haryana High Court
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