Important Guidelines issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the Landmark Judgement of Satender Kumar Antil vs. Central Bureau of Investigation on 11.07.2022
The courts will have to satisfy themselves on the compliance of Sections 41 and 41A of the Code. Any non-compliance would entitle the accused to grant bail i.e. if the police authorities fail to issue a notice in an offense wherein the punishment is in form of imprisonment up to 7 years then the accused is eligible to get bail.
The investigating agencies and their officers are duty-bound to comply with the mandate of Sections 41 and 41A of the Code and the directions issued by this Court in Arnesh Kumar vs State Of Bihar & Anr on 2 July 2014. Any default on their part has to be brought to the notice of the higher authorities by the court followed by appropriate action. An aggrieved person can file a civil contempt petition against the investigating officer before the Hon’ble Court.
Bail applications ought to be disposed of within a period of two weeks except if the provisions mandate otherwise, with the exception being an intervening application. Applications for anticipatory bail are expected to be disposed of within a period of six weeks with the exception of any intervening application.
The State and Central Governments will have to comply with the directions issued by this Court from time to time with respect to the constitution of special courts. The High Court in consultation with the State Governments will have to undertake an exercise on the need for special courts. The vacancies in the position of Presiding Officers of the special courts will have to be filled up expeditiously.
The High Courts are directed to undertake the exercise of finding out the undertrial prisoners who are not able to comply with the bail conditions. After doing so, appropriate action will have to be taken in light of Section 440 of the Code, facilitating the release.
An exercise will have to be done similarly to comply with the mandate of Section 436-A of the Code both at the district judiciary level and the High Court as earlier directed by this Court in Bhim Singh v. Union of India, (2015) 13 SCC 605 that judicial officers shall identify the undertrial prisoners who have completed half period of the maximum period or maximum period of imprisonment provided for the said offense under the law and after complying with the procedure prescribed under Section 436-A pass an appropriate order in the jail itself for release of such undertrial prisoners on bail who fulfill the requirement of Section 436-A for their release immediately.