Parameters of granting the Anticipatory Bail in India

The FIR in a criminal case is a vital and valuable piece of evidence though may not be a substantive piece of evidence. The object of insisting upon prompt lodging of the FIR in respect of the commission of an offense is to obtain early information regarding the circumstances in which the crime was committed, the names of actual culprits and the part played by them as well as the names of eyewitnesses present at the scene of occurrence. If there is a delay in lodging the FIR, it loses the advantage of spontaneity; danger creeps in of the introduction of colored version, exaggerated account or concocted story as a result of a large number of consultations/deliberations. Undoubtedly, the promptness in lodging the FIR is an assurance regarding the truth of the informant’s version. A promptly lodged FIR reflects the first-hand account of what has actually happened, and who was responsible for the offense in question.

Factors and Parameters of granting the Anticipatory Bail

While dealing with an application for anticipatory bail, there is a need to indicate in the order, reasons for prima facie concluding why anticipatory bail was being granted particularly where an accused was charged with having committed a serious offense. It is necessary for the courts dealing with the application for bail to consider among other circumstances, the following factors and parameters to be considered while considering an application for anticipatory bail before granting anticipatory bail, they are:

• The possibility of the applicant to flee from justice;
• The possibility of the accuseds likelihood to repeat similar or the other offenses;
• The antecedents of the applicant including the fact as to whether the accused has previously undergone imprisonment on conviction by a Court in respect of any cognizable offense;
• Prima facie satisfaction of the Court in support of the charge;
• Reasonable apprehension of tampering of the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant;
• The nature and gravity of the accusation and the exact role of the accused must be properly comprehended before arrest is made;
• Where the accusations have been made only with the object of injuring or humiliating the applicant by arresting him or her;
• Impact of grant of anticipatory bail particularly in cases of large magnitude affecting a very large number of people;
• The courts must evaluate the entire available material against the accused very carefully;
• The court must also clearly comprehend the exact role of the accused in the case. The cases in which accused is implicated with the help of sections 34 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code, the court should consider with even greater care and caution because over-implication in the cases is a matter of common knowledge and concern;
• While considering the prayer for grant of anticipatory bail, a balance has to be struck between two factors namely, no prejudice should be caused to the free, fair and full investigation and there should be the prevention of harassment, humiliation and unjustified detention of the accused;
• The court to consider reasonable apprehension of tampering of the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant;
• Frivolity in prosecution should always be considered and it is only the element of genuineness that shall have to be considered in the matter of grant of bail and in the event of there being some doubt as to the genuineness of the prosecution, in the normal course of events, the accused is entitled to an order of bail;
• The arrest should be the last option and it should be restricted to those exceptional cases where arresting the accused is imperative in the facts and circumstances of that case;
• The court must carefully examine the entire available record and particularly the allegations which have been directly attributed to the accused and these allegations are corroborated by other material and circumstances on record.

These above points are the basic parameters of granting the Anticipatory bail to the accused/applicant person.

Advocateinchandigarh have huge experience of dealing with such cases in the High court Chandigarh or Supreme court of India. If you would like to contact our criminal lawyers for any reason please call us 9914328749 or email us using advhighcourt14@gmail.com