Under prison justice system, bail is the rule and jail
is an exception. Upon an individual’s arrest, totally different sorts of
bail can be found to him at totally different phases of his proceedings,
as authorized treatments to return out of the pains of custody. This
article introduces the totally different sorts of bail accessible to an
accused.

I. Introduction

The Hon’ble Justice V.R. Krishna famously noticed that
“Bail is a Rule and Jail is an exception.” This quote was
made maintaining in thoughts the spirit of Article 21 of the Constitution
of India which states that no individual shall be disadvantaged of his life
or private liberty besides based on procedures established by
regulation. When an individual is arrested, he’s disadvantaged of his private
liberty. The arrest of any individual entails lack of repute,
stigma and grave penalties on the household of the arrested individual.
The idea of bail flows from this elementary proper that an individual
shouldn’t be made to languish in jails until completely
obligatory. Bail, in easy phrases, implies that an individual accused of an
offence can search his launch from custody if he fulfils sure
circumstances laid down ¹. This article discusses
the totally different sorts of bail beneath the Code of Criminal Procedure,
1973.

II. Statutory provisions

The expression ‘bail’ hasn’t been outlined
particularly beneath the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
(‘Code’). The provisions referring to bail are contained in
Chapter 33 of the Code (Sections 436 to 450). The Code segregates
the offences between bailable and non-bailable offences. Section
2(a) of the Code defines “bailable offence” to imply an
offence which is proven as bailable within the First Schedule, or which
is made bailable by every other regulation in the meanwhile in drive; and
“non- bailable offence” means every other offence.

Section 436 of the Code states that an individual accused of a
bailable offence can have the fitting to be launched on bail at any
stage of proceedings. This implies that even when an individual is arrested
in respect of a bailable offence, he will be instantly launched on
bail. In respect of bail beneath Section 436 of the Code, it’s the
proper of the accused to get bail and the Court, or the
investigating officer can not refuse bail.

On the opposite hand, Section 437 of the Code states that in case
of non-bailable offences, bail will be granted on the discretion of
the Court. The Court referred to in Section 437 refers to a Court
apart from a High Court or Court of Sessions. It has been
constantly held that the discretion to grant bail beneath Section
437 “cannot be arbitrary, fanciful or vague”
². In different phrases, the discretion to grant bail
ought to all the time be exercised by courts judicially and never in accordance
to “whim, caprice or fancy” ³.
Section 437 additional supplies that an individual accused of a
non-bailable offence can’t be granted bail if:

(i) There are cheap grounds to consider that he has
dedicated an offence punishable with the demise penalty or life
imprisonment.

(ii) That the accused has dedicated a cognizable offence and he
had been beforehand convicted of an offence punishable with demise,
imprisonment for all times, or imprisonment of seven years or extra or if
the accused has been convicted on two or extra situations of a
cognizable and non-bailable offence.

The proviso to Section 437 additional supplies that the above
circumstances is not going to apply if the accused individual is beneath the age of
sixteen years or is a girl or is sick or infirm or if the court docket is
happy that it’s simply and correct to launch the individual on bail.
Similarly, Section 439 of the Code supplies for grant of bail by
the High Court or the Court of Sessions. Thus, one of many principal
variations between Section 437 and Section 439 is the Court earlier than
which the bail utility is filed.

III. Kinds of bail

The Code contemplates grant of several types of bail to an
accused individual. They are briefly summarized as beneath:

(a) Regular bail

The bail granted to an accused individual beneath Section 437 or
Section 439 of the Code is usually what’s known as common
bail. This usually implies that in case an individual is arrested in
respect of a non-bailable offence, he shall be launched on
fulfilment of sure circumstances until the conclusion of the
trial.

(b) Anticipatory Bail

Section 438 of the Code supplies that if an individual is
apprehending arrest in case of a non-bailable offence, the individual
might strategy the High Court or a Court of Sessions searching for a
course that within the occasion of his arrest, he shall be launched on
bail. Anticipatory bail is a type of pre-arrest bail and will be
sought provided that an individual has not been arrested. If the individual is
arrested, then the individual has to hunt common bail beneath Section
437 or Section 439 as mentioned above.

The idea of anticipatory bail relies on the advice
made by the Law Commission of India in its forty first report. The Law
Commission defined the article behind the introduction of
anticipatory bail to guard the folks from getting falsely
implicated in case and ending up in jail. The Courts have held
that anticipatory bail should be granted solely in very deserving
circumstances the place it’s obvious that the individual searching for anticipatory
bail might be severely prejudiced if such bail is just not granted.

(c) Default Bail

Section 167 of the Code supplies that when an individual is arrested
and the investigation can’t be accomplished inside a interval of 24
hours, the arrested individual shall be produced earlier than a Magistrate
who has the facility to authorize his detention for a interval not
exceeding 15 days. Normally, this era of detention is additional
prolonged for 15 days by the Magistrate to allow the police or the
investigating company to finish the investigation. However,
Section 167(2) additional supplies that the interval of detention can not
be prolonged for greater than 90 days in case of offences punishable
with demise, imprisonment with life or imprisonment of not lower than
10 years. In case of different offences, this era is 60 days. In
easy phrases, because of this if the police or the investigating
company doesn’t full its investigation with 60 days/90 days by
submitting a chargesheet or a criticism, then the accused individual shall
be entitled to a default bail.

The proper to a default bail is an absolute proper and never on the
discretion of any Court. Thus, if the accused is ready to
reveal that 60 or 90 days because the case could also be, have elapsed
since his arrest and no chargesheet or criticism has been filed,
the Court is sure to grant him default bail.

(d) Interim bail

The bail granted for a brief time frame is usually often called
interim bail. This bail is usually granted in circumstances the place the
accused individual is in any other case not entitled for a daily bail,
nevertheless, there exist circumstances (i.e., medical or humanitarian)
due to which the Court feels that the individual will be launched
for a brief time frame (say 4 weeks or 8 weeks relying on the
circumstances).

(e) Medical bail

The bail granted to an individual purely on medical grounds is thought
as medical bail. This is a kind of standard bail however granted purely
on medical concerns. While granting medical bail, the Courts
usually don’t go into the deserves of the case and whether or not the
varied standards for grant of bail are happy or not.

(f) Bail beneath Section 436A of the Code

Section 436A of the Code states an individual accused of any offence
(apart from an offence which is punishable with demise) has been in
custody of a one-half of the utmost interval of imprisonment which
will be imposed on him for such offence, such individual will be launched
on bail. In a rustic like India the place the trials take substantial
time to finish, the insertion of Section 436A is a really
benevolent part which grants the reduction to accused individuals who
would not have the entry to an efficient illustration.

IV. Conclusion

Thus, bail is a vital proper accessible to an accused individual
to guard his elementary proper assured beneath Article 21 of the
Constitution of India. The regulation round bail remains to be evolving
particularly with the brand new age offences like financial offences, which
the society is confronted with.

Footnotes

1 Sudesh Kumar Sharma, ‘Dimensions of Judicial
Discretion in Bail Matters’ (1980) 22 Journal of the Indian Law
Institute 351.

2 Jai Prakash Singh v State of Bihar (2012) 4 SCC
379

3 Guru Baksh Singh Sibbia v State of Punjab (1980) 2 SCC
565

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