Latest supreme court judgment on anticipatory bail
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Criminal Appeal No. 5456 of 2024
Date of Order: 18.12.2024
Deepak Aggarwal Vs. Balwan Singh & Anr.
Hon’ble Judges/Coram:
J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, JJ.
Citation: MANU/SCOR/146578/2024.
In this case Supreme court has established important guidelines for granting interim anticipatory bail. The bench comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan laid down crucial principles:
Key Holdings:
Courts must exercise caution when granting interim protection to accused persons while deciding anticipatory bail pleas
Ad-interim relief that is practically equivalent to final anticipatory bail relief is impermissible during the pendency of the anticipatory bail application
The Court disapproved High Courts granting accused persons liberty to join investigations while simultaneously ordering their release on ad-interim bail if arrested
Three Options for High Courts:
The Supreme Court clarified that when High Courts hear anticipatory bail applications, they have three options:
Reject the application immediately
Issue notice to the State without granting interim protection
Issue notice and grant appropriate protection (exercising discretion based on case merits)
The Court emphasized that “such ad-interim reliefs have their own legal implications” and referenced the Srikant Upadhyay & Ors. v. State of Bihar & Anr. (2024) case, which stressed caution in exercising discretionary power to prevent obstruction of investigations and miscarriage of justice.