# BABU SINGH AND ORS v. THE STATE OF U.P

- **Citation:** [1978] 2 S.C.R. 777
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1978-01-31
- **Bench:** V. R. Krishna Iyer, D. A. Desai
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/babu-singh-and-ors-v-the-state-of-u-p-7424
- **Pages:** 11

## Headnote

Bail-Grant of bail-Practice and Procedure in the matter of granting. of
bail to an aci:used person pending the hearing of an appeal-Criteria for
bail-Order XLVll Rule 6 r!w Order XX/ Rules 6 and 27 of Supreme Court
Rules, 1966-Courts are not barred from second consideration at a later stage
by e11tertaini11g another application for bail-Effect of interim directions by the
Court.
A
B
All the petitioners were charged with the offence of murder u/s 3Q2 l.P .. C..
C
but all of them were acquitted by the Sessions Judge on 4-11-1972. The State
sUcC'essfully appealed against the acquittal and by its judgment dated 20-5-1977
the High Court, while reversing the findings of the Sessions Court, held all of
them guilty and sentenced them all to life imprisonment. The
petitioners
came up to the Supreme Court exercising their statutory right of appeal. Pend·
ing the disposal of the appeal, they moved an application for bail which was
rejected on 7·9·1977. The petitioners moved another application for bail.
Granting the bail, subject to fulfilment of conditions imposed, the Court
HELD : 1. An order refusing an application for bail does not necessarily
preclude another, on a Jater occasion, giving more materials, further develop·
n1ents and different considerations. While it is a circumstance which the Courts
surely must set store, Courts are not barred from second consideration at a
later stage. An interim direction is not a conclusive adjudication and updated
reconsideration is not overturning an earlier negation.
[779 D--E]
2. The significance and sweep of Art. 21 make the deprivation of liberty
ephemeral or .enduring, a matter of grave concern and permissible only when
the law authorising it is reasonable, even handed and geared to the goals of
.community good and State·necessity spelt out Jin Article 19. Reag,onable·
ness postulates intelligent care and predicates that deprivation of freedom by
refusal of bail is not for punitive purpose, but for the bifocal interests of
justice to the individual involved and society affected. f784 E·F]
3. Personal liberty deprived when bail is refused, is too precious a value
D
E
of our constitutional system recognised under Art. 21. that the curial power to
negate it is a great trust exercisable, not casually, but judicially with
lively
cortcCrn for the cost to the individual and the community. Personal liberty of
F
an accused or convict is fundamental, suffering lawful eclipse only in terms
of procedure established by Jaw. The last four words of Art. 21 are the life
of that human right.
[781 A-Bl
4. All deprivatio•n of liberty is validated by social defence
and
individual
correction along an
anti~criminal direction. Public justice is central to the
whole scheme of bail law. Fleeing justice must be forbidden but punitive
harshness should be minimised. Restorative devises to redeem the man, even
through community service, meditative drill, study classes or other resources
should be innovated and playing foul with public peace by tampering with
evidence, intimidating witnesses or committing offences while on
judicially
sanctioned "free enterprise" should be provided against. No seeker of justice
shall play confidence tricks on the Court or community. Conditions may be
hung around bail orders, not to cripple but to protect. Such is the holistic
~jurisdiction and humanistic orientation invoked by the judicial discretion corre·
lated to the va.lues of our Constitution. [785 B-C]
5. The principal rule to guide release on bail should be to secure the pre·
sence of the applicant, who seeks to be liberated, to take judgment and serve
sentence in the event of the Court punishing him with imprisonment. In this
G
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· SUPREME
COURT
REPORTS
[1978] 2 S·C·R·
perspective relevance of considerations is regulated by their nexus \Vith the likely
absence of the applicant for fear of a severe sentence.
[783 EJ
·. The vital considerations are : (a) The nature of charge, the nature of the
evidence and, the punishme

## Text

r
777
BABU SINGH AND ORS.
v.
THE STATE OF U.P.
January 31, 1978
(V. R. KRISHNA IYER AND D. A. DESAI, JJ.)
Bail-Grant of bail-Practice and Procedure in the matter of granting. of
bail to an aci:used person pending the hearing of an appeal-Criteria for
bail-Order XLVll Rule 6 r!w Order XX/ Rules 6 and 27 of Supreme Court
Rules, 1966-Courts are not barred from second consideration at a later stage
by e11tertaini11g another application for bail-Effect of interim directions by the
Court.
A
B
All the petitioners were charged with the offence of murder u/s 3Q2 l.P .. C..
C
but all of them were acquitted by the Sessions Judge on 4-11-1972. The State
sUcC'essfully appealed against the acquittal and by its judgment dated 20-5-1977
the High Court, while reversing the findings of the Sessions Court, held all of
them guilty and sentenced them all to life imprisonment. The
petitioners
came up to the Supreme Court exercising their statutory right of appeal. Pend·
ing the disposal of the appeal, they moved an application for bail which was
rejected on 7·9·1977. The petitioners moved another application for bail.
Granting the bail, subject to fulfilment of conditions imposed, the Court
HELD : 1. An order refusing an application for bail does not necessarily
preclude another, on a Jater occasion, giving more materials, further develop·
n1ents and different considerations. While it is a circumstance which the Courts
surely must set store, Courts are not barred from second consideration at a
later stage. An interim direction is not a conclusive adjudication and updated
reconsideration is not overturning an earlier negation.
[779 D--E]
2. The significance and sweep of Art. 21 make the deprivation of liberty
ephemeral or .enduring, a matter of grave concern and permissible only when
the law authorising it is reasonable, even handed and geared to the goals of
.community good and State·necessity spelt out Jin Article 19. Reag,onable·
ness postulates intelligent care and predicates that deprivation of freedom by
refusal of bail is not for punitive purpose, but for the bifocal interests of
justice to the individual involved and society affected. f784 E·F]
3. Personal liberty deprived when bail is refused, is too precious a value
D
E
of our constitutional system recognised under Art. 21. that the curial power to
negate it is a great trust exercisable, not casually, but judicially with
lively
cortcCrn for the cost to the individual and the community. Personal liberty of
F
an accused or convict is fundamental, suffering lawful eclipse only in terms
of procedure established by Jaw. The last four words of Art. 21 are the life
of that human right.
[781 A-Bl
4. All deprivatio•n of liberty is validated by social defence
and
individual
correction along an
anti~criminal direction. Public justice is central to the
whole scheme of bail law. Fleeing justice must be forbidden but punitive
harshness should be minimised. Restorative devises to redeem the man, even
through community service, meditative drill, study classes or other resources
should be innovated and playing foul with public peace by tampering with
evidence, intimidating witnesses or committing offences while on
judicially
sanctioned "free enterprise" should be provided against. No seeker of justice
shall play confidence tricks on the Court or community. Conditions may be
hung around bail orders, not to cripple but to protect. Such is the holistic
~jurisdiction and humanistic orientation invoked by the judicial discretion corre·
lated to the va.lues of our Constitution. [785 B-C]
5. The principal rule to guide release on bail should be to secure the pre·
sence of the applicant, who seeks to be liberated, to take judgment and serve
sentence in the event of the Court punishing him with imprisonment. In this
G
H
A
B
c
778
· SUPREME
COURT
REPORTS
[1978] 2 S·C·R·
perspective relevance of considerations is regulated by their nexus \Vith the likely
absence of the applicant for fear of a severe sentence.
[783 EJ
·. The vital considerations are : (a) The nature of charge, the nature of the
evidence and, the punishment to which the party may be liable, if convicted,
or conviction is confirmed. When the crime charged is of the highest magnitude and the punishment of it assigned by law is of extreme severity, the Coun
may reasonably presume, some evidence warranting, that no amount of bail
would secure the presence of the convict at the stage of judgment, l!lhonld he be
enlarged (b) whether the course of justicei would be thwarted by him who seeks
the .benignant jurisdiction of the Court to be freed for the time being; (c)
Antecedents of the man and socio-geographical circumstances and whether the
petitioner's record shows hitn to be a habitual offeinder;
(d) \Vhen a person
charged with a grave offence has been acquitted at a stage, the intermediate
acquittal has pertinence to a bail plea when the appeal before this Court pends.
The grounds for denial of provisional releases becomes weaker when a fair
finding of innocence has been recorded by one court, ( e) \Vhether the accused's
safety may be more in prison than in the vengeful vi1Jage where feuds have
provoked the violent offence and (f) The period in prison already spent and
the prospect of delay in the appeal being heard and disposed of.
[783 A-B, F, 784 C. D, 785 D-E, 786 A]
Kashmira Singh v. State of Puniab, [1978] I SCR 385 = A.I.R.
1977 SC
2147 @ 2148; Gudikanti Narasihmalu and Ors. v. Public Prosecutor, Govt _of
A.P., [1978] 2 SCR; 371 Reiterated.
D
Ti11glay v. Dolby, 14 N.W. 146; Rex v. Rose, 1898-18 CC 717; 67 QB
E
F
G
H
289; quoted with approval.
Courts should soberly size up police exaggerations of prospective miscon·
duct of the accused if enlarged, lest danger of excesses and injustice creep subtly
into the discretionary curial technique.
Bad record and police prediction of
criminal prospects to invalidate the bail plea are admissible in principle, but
shall not stampede the Court into complacent refusal. The endemic pathology
of factious scrimmage and bloodshed should be pre-empted by suitable safe
guards.
[785 F-G]
To· answer the test of reasonableness. subject to the need for securing the
presence of the bail applicant, the Court must also weigh the contrary factors
like-( 1) the better chances which a man on bail has to prepare or present
his case than one remanded in custody, (ii) promotion of public justice, (iii)
the consider_able public expenses in keeping in custody where no danger of
disappearance or disturbance can arise and (iv) the deplorable condition verging on the inhuman of our sub-jails. [784 G-H, 785 AJ
In the in<:.tant case. the following significant factors frown upon continuance of incarceration and favour provisional but conditional enlargement of the
petitioners.
(a) Petitioners 1 to .5 have suffered sentences in some measures having
been imprisoned for about twenty months.
(b) \Vhen the High Court entertained the apperil, the State did not press
for their custody for apprehended abscondence or menace to peace and justice.
( c) The sixth Petitiooer had been on bail in the
Sessions Court and all
the
pe~itioners had, been free during the pendency of the appeal.
(d) There is nothing indicated to show that ~uring the long five years,
when the petitioners had been out of prison, pending a.ppeal, there had been
any conduct on their part suggestive of dishtrbing the peace of tihe locality,
threatening any one in the village or otherwise thwartin_g the life of the community or the cause of justice and
(e) All the petitioners 1 to 5 are the entire male 1neo1bers of a family ood
their remaining in jail will jeopardise their defence in this Court.
[779 F, 780 B-E]
(-
T
•
\
BABU SINGH V. u. P. (Krishna Tyer, !.)
779
CiUMIN/AL APPELLATE 1URISDICTION i
Criminal Misc.
Petition
A
No. 191 of 1~78.
In the !matter of :'- ·
CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 274 of 1977
R. K. Jain for the Petitioner.
D. P. Uniyad and 0. P. Rana for the Respondent
The Order of the Court was delivered by
B
KRISHNA IYER, J.-The petitioners have moved for bail setting out
special grounds in 1support of the prayer. The State opposes on various grounds which we will presently set out. One of us 'itting as a ·
Chamber Judge in Gudikanti Narasihmalu and others v. Public ProseC ·
cutor, Govt. of AP(') had considered this question at some length and
since the principles set out herein commend themselves to us, we are
proceeding on the same lines and are inclined to reach the same conclusion.
Briefly we will state the facts pertinent to the present petition and
prayer and proceed thereafter to ratiocinate on the relevant criteria in
D
considering the interlocutory relief of bail.
Right at the beginning,
we must mention that, at jan earlier stage,, their application for bail was
rejected by this Court on September 7, 1977. But an order refusing
an application for bail does not necessarily preclude another, on u later
occasion, giving more materials, further developments
and different
consideration>.
While we surely must set store by this circumstance,
we cannot accede to the faint plea that we are barred ,from second conE
sideration at a later stage.
Au interim direction is not a conclusive
adjudication, and updated reconsideration is not over-turning an earlier
negation. In this view, we entertain the application and evaluate the
merits pro and con.
Shri R.K. Jain has brought to our notice certain significant factors
Which frown upon continuance of incarceration and favour provisional,
F
perhaps conditional enlargement of the applicants.
All the petitioners were charged with an offence of murder under
s.302 I.P.C. but all of them were acquitted by the Sessions Court !a!
early as November 4, 1972. The State successfully appealed against
the acquittal and the High Court, reversing the findings of the Sessions
Court, held all the petitioners guilty and sentenced them all to life
0
imprisonment.
This judgment was pronounced on May 20, 1977,
after an unfortunately tragic sojourn of five years for an appeal in a
mmder case. Our justice, system, even in grave cases, suffers from slow
motion syndrome which is lethal to "fair trial", whatever the ultimate
decision.
Speedy justice is a component of social justice since the
community, as a whole, is concerned in the criminal being condignly
and finaly punished within a reasonabe time and the innocent being
H
absolved from the incordinate ordeal of criminal proceedings. This is
(I) [1978) 2 S.C.R.371
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SUPREME
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by the way, although it is important that judicial business management
by engineering, not tinkering, so as to produce efficient expedition, is
an urgent, high-priority item on ,the agenda of court reform, to be
radically undertaken none to soon.
Back to the necessary facts.
On the High Court upsetting the
acquittal, the petitioners have come up to this Court exercising their
statutory right to appeal. The present petition, as earlier stated, is the
second one for bail, the first having been rejected about six months ago.
The petitioners 1 to 5 have suffered sentence in some measure, having
been imprisoned for about twenty months.
The sixth petitioner bad
been on bail in the Sess10ns Coun and all the petitionerS; llad been free
during the pendency of the appeal.
Certain other pregnant particulars deserve special mention.
All the
petitioners 1 to 5 are the entire male members of a family, and one
point mentioned by Shri Jain is that all of them ar' in jail. Their
defence in this Coun may, therefore, be jeopardised. Another factor,
equally meaningful, is that there is nothing indicated before us to show
that during the Jong five years, when the petitioners had been out of
prison, pending appeal, there had been any conduct on their part suggestive of disturbing the peace of the locality, threatening anyone' in the
village or otherwise thwarting the life of the community or the course
of justice. Nay more. When the High Court entertained the appeal,
the State did not press for their custody for apprehended abscondence
or menace to peace and justice. It must be noticed that the episode of
murder itself is attributed as the outcome of a faction fight or feud
between the two clans in the village, not an unusual phenomenon_ in
rural India riven by rivalry of castes, sects and gens.
This is, of course,
a survival of primitive tribalism, as it were, but cannot be wisl1ed away
unless sociological therapeutics were applied.
The pharmacopoeia of
the Penal Code is no sufficient curative. Nevertheless. we have to remember the reality of the viJJage feud and consequent proneness to
flare ups and recrudescence of criminal conflicts.
Against this backdrop of social and individual facts1 we must consider th<e motion for bail. The correct legal approach has been clouded
in the past by focus on the ferocity of the crime to the neglect of the
real purposes of bail or jail and indifferent to many other sensitive and
sensible circumstances which deserve judicial notice. The whole issue,
going by decisional material and legal literature has been relegated to
a twilight zone of the criminal justice system. Courts have often acted
intuitively or reacted traditionally,, so much so the fate of applicants for
bail at the High Court level and in the, Supreme Court, has largely
hinged on the hunch of the bench as on expression of 'judicial discretion'. A scientific treatment is the desideratum.
The Code is cryptic on this topic and the court prefers to b~ tacit,
be the order custodial or not. And yet, the issue is one of liberty, justice, public safety and burden on the public treasury, all of which insists
that a developed jurisprudence of bail is integral to a socially sensitized
judicial process.
As Chamber Judge in the summit court I have to
i~
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'
BABU SINGH v. u. P, (Krishna Iyer, J.)
781
deal with this uncanalised case-flow, iJd hoc response to the docket
A
being the flickering candle light !ll it is desirable that the subject is
disposed of on basic principle, not improvised brevity draped as discretion. Personal liberty, deprived when bail is refused, is too precious a
value of our constitutional system recognised under Art. 21 that the
curial power to negate it is a great trust exercisable, not casually but
judicially, with lively concern for the cost to the individual and the
community. To glamorise impressionistic orders as discretionary may,
B
on occasions. make a !itigative gamble decisive of a fundamental right.
After all, personal liberty of an accused or convict is fundan1ental,
suffering lawful eclipse only in terms of "procedure established by
law". The last four words of Art. 21 are the life of that human right.
The doctrine of Police Power,, constitutionally validates punitive
processes for the maintenance of public order, security of the State,
C
national integrity and the interest of the public generally. Even so,
having regard to the solemn issue involved, deprivation of personal freedom, ephemeral or enduring, must be founded on the most serious
considerations relevant to the welfare objectives of society, specified
in the Constitution.
What then, is 'judicial discretion' in this bail context? In the ele·
D
gant \\'Ords of Benjamin Cardozo.
"The judge, even when he is free, is still not wholly free.
He is not to innovate at pleasure. He is not a knight-errant
roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of
goodness.
He is to draw his inspiration from consecrated
principles. He is not to yield to spasmodic sentiment, to
vague and unregulated benevolence. He is to exercise a discr~tio'n informed by tradition, methodized by analogy, disciplmed by system,
and subordinated to 'the primordial
necessity of order in the social lifo'. Wide enou2h in all conscience is the field of discretion that remains." -
E
(The Nature of Judicial Process-Yale University Press
F
(1921).
Even so it is useful to notice the tart terms of Lord Camdon that
"the discretion of a judge is the ;aw of tyrants: it is always unknown, it is different in difforent men; it is casual
and ~ep_ends upo;i constitt:tion. temper and passion. In th~
best, it 1s often !Imes capnce; in the worst, it is every vice,
folly and pass~on to which human nature is liable .... " (1
Bo".u: Law Diet., Rawles' III Revision p. 685~quoted in
Judicial D1screl!o'n-Nabonal College of the State Judiciary
Reno, Nevada p. 14).
'
Some jurists have regarded. the term 'judicial discretion' as a mis-
:iomer.
Nev~rtheless, the vestmg of discretion is the unspoken but
1Msc.apa~le, silent command of our judicial system, and those who exercise 1t will remember that
G
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'discretion, when applied to a court of justice, means
sound discretion guided by law.
It must be governed
by
·rule, not by humour; it must not be arbitrary, vague and
fanciful but legal and regular.
(Attributed to Lord Mansfield Tinglay v. Dolby, 14 N.W.
146)
"An appeal to a judge's discretion is an appeal to his
judicial conscience. • The discretion must be exercised, not
in opposition to, but in accordance with, established. principles of law."
Judicial discretion, (ibid) p. 33
Having grasped the core concept of judicial discretion and the
constitutional perspective in which the Court must operate
public
policy by a restraint on liberty, we have to proceed to see what are
the relevant criteria for grant or refusal of bail in the case
of a
person who bas either been convicted and bas appealed or one whose
conv1ctmn has been set aside but leave has been granted by this
Court to appeal against the acquittal.
"What is often forgotten, and
therefore warrants reminder, is the object to keep a person in judicial
custody pending trial or disposal of an appeal. Lord Russel, C.J. said
"I observe that in this case bail was refused for
the
prisoner.
It cannot be too strongly impressed
on
the
magistracy of the country that bail is not to be withheld as
a punishment, but that the requirements as to
bail
are
E
merely to secure the attendance of the prisoner at trial."
F
G
(R. v. Rose-1898--18Cox CC.
717:
67
LJQB
289-quoted in 'The granting of Bail',
Mod. Law Rev.
Vol. 81, Jan 1968 p. 40, 48).
This theme was developed by Lord Rnssel of Killowen C. J., when
he charged the grand jury at Salisbury Assizes, 1899 :
"'. . it was the duty of magistrates to admit
accused
persons to bail, wherever practicable, unless there were
strong grounds for supposing that such persons would not
appear to take their trial. It was not the poorer classes
who did not appear, for their circumstances were snch
as to tie them to the place where they carried
on
their
work. They had not the golden wings with which to fly
from justice."
(1899) 63 J. P. 193, Mod. Law Rev. p. 49 (ibid).
In Archbold it is stated that
"The proper test of whether bail should be granted or
refused is whether it is probable that the defendant will
H
appear to take his trial ....
The test should be applied by reference to the following considerations :
BABU·SINGH v. u. P. (Krishna Iyer, .T.)
783
( 1) The nature of the accusation
(2) The nature of the evidence in
support
of
the
accusation . .
(a) The severity of the punishment which conviction
will en tail. ...
( 4) Whether the sureties are independent, or mdemnified by the accused person .... "
(Mod. Law Rev. ibid. P· 53-Archbold, pleading Evidence and Practice in Criminal Cases, 56th edn., London,
1966 para 203)
Perhaps, this is an overly simplistic statement and we n,iust ~emember
the constitutional focus in Art. 21 and 19 before following diffuse observations and practices in the English system. Even lq England tlfere
is a growing awareness that the working of the bail system requires a
second look from the point of view of correct legal criteria and sound
principles, as has been pointed out by Dr. Bottomley.
(The Granting
of Bail : Principles and Practices : Mod.
Law Rev.
ibid p. 40 to
54).
Let us have a glance at the pros and cons and the true principle
around which other relevant factors must revolve.
When the case is
finally disposed of and a person is sentenced to incarceration, things
stand on a different footing.
We ar~ concerned with the penultimate
stage and the principal rule to guide release on bail should be to secure
the presence of the applicant who seeks to be liberated, to take judgment and serve sentence in the event of the court punishing him with
imprisonment. In this perspective, relevance of considerations is regulated by their nexus with the likely absence of the applicant for fear
of a severe sentence, if such be plausible in the case. As Erle J. indicated, wheu the crime charged (of which a conviction has been sustained) is of the highest magnitude and the punishment of it assigned
by law is of extreme severity, the Court may reasonably presume,
some evidence warranting, that no amount of bail would secure the
presence of the convict at the stage of judgment, should he be enlarged.
(Mod. Law Rev. p. 50 ibid, 1952 l.E.&B.I.). Lord Campbell CJ concurred in this approach in that case and Coleridge J. set
down the order of priorities as follows :
·
"I do not think that an accused
party is
detained in
custody because of his guilt, but because there are sufficient
probable . grounds for the charge against him as to make it
proper that he should be tried, and because the detention is
necessary to ensure his appearance at trial. . · . It is a
very important element in considering whether the party,
if admitted to bail, would appear to take bis trial; and I
think that in coming to a determination on that point three
e1ements will generally be found the most important : the
charge, the nature of the evidence by which it is supported.
A
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784
SUPREME
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(1978] 2 S·C·R·
and the punishment to which the party would be liable if
convicted. In the present case, the charge is that of wilful murder; the evidence contains an admission by the
prisoners of the truth of the charge, and the punishment of
the offence is, by Jaw, death."
(Mod. Law Rev. ibid p. 50-51)
It is thus obvious that the nature of the charge is the vital factor
and the nature of the evidence also is pertinent. The punishmenrto·
which the party may be liable, if convicted or conviction is confirmed, also bears upon the issue.
Another relevan!. factor is as to whether the course of justice
would be thwarted by him who seeks the benignant jurisdiction of
the Court to be freed for the time being.
(Patrick Devlin The Criminal Prosecution in England London)
1960, p. 75-Mod. Law Rev. ibid p. 54);
Thus the legal principle and practice validate the court considering the likelihood of the applicant interfering with witnesses for the
prosecution or otherwise polluting the process of justice. It is not
only traditional but rational, in thiS context, to enquire into the antecedents of a man who is applying for bail to find whether he has a
bad record-particularly a record which suggests that he is likely to
commit serious offences while on bail.
In regard to habituals it is
part of criminological history that a thoughtless bail order has enabled the bailee to expoit the opportunity to inflict further crimes on;
the members of society.
Bail discretion, on the basis of evidence
about the criminal record of a defendant, is therefore not an exercise
in irrelevance.
The significance and sweep of Art. 21 make the deprivation of
liberty a matter of grave concern and permissible only when the law
authorising it is .!.easonable, even-handed and geared to the goals of
community good and State necessity spelt out in Art.
19. Indeed,
.the considerations I have set out as criteria are germane to the constitutional proposition I have deduced. Reasonableness postulates
intelligent care and predicates that deprivation of freedom by refusal
of bail is not for punitive purpose but for the bi-focal interests of
justice-to the individual involved and society affected.
We must weigh the contrary factors to answer the test of reasonableness, subject to the need ·for securillg the presence of the bail
applicant. It makes !ense to assume that a man on bail has a better·
chance to prepare or present his case than one remanded in custody.
And if public j~ice is to be promoted, mechanical detention should
~e demoted. In the United States. which has a constitutional perspechve close t? ours, the function of bail is limited, 'community roots'
of the applicant are stressed and, after the Vera Foundation's Manhattan· Bail Pr.eject, monetary suretyship is losing ground. The considerable pubhc expense in keeping in custody where no danger of
I
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BABU SINGH v. u. P. (Krishna Iyer, !.)
785
disappearance or disturbance can . arise, is not a negligible consideration.
Equally important is the deplorable condition, verging on the
inhuman, of our sub-jails, that the unrewarding cruelty artd expensive custody of avoidable incarceration makes refusal of bail unreasonable and a policy favouring release justly sensible.
A
A few other weighty factors deserve reference. All deprivation of
liberty is validated by social defense and individual correc!lon along
an anti-criminal direction.
Public justice is central to the whole
scheme of bail Jaw.
Fleeing justice must be forbidden but punitive
harshness should be minimised.
Restorative devices to redeem tlie
man, even through community service, meditative drill, study classes
or other resources should be innovated, and playing foul with public
peace by tampering ·with evidence, intimidating witnesses or committing offences while on judicially sanctioned 'free enterprise', should be
provided against. No seeker of justice shall play confidence Tl'!cks on
the court or community. Thus, conditions may be hung around bail
orders, not to cripple but to protect. Such is the holistic jurisdiction
and humanistic orientation invoked by the judicial discretion correlated to the values of our constitution.
Viewed from this perspective, we gain a better insight into the
rules of the game.
When a person, charged with a grave offence,
has been acquitted at a stage, has the intermediate acquittal pertinence
to a bail plea when the appeal before this Court pends? Yes, it has.
The panic which might prompt the accused to jump the gauntlet of
justice is less, having enjoyed the confidence of the court's verdict
once.
Concurrent holdings of guilt have the opposite effect.
Again,
the ground for demal of provisional release becomes weaker wnen
the fact stares us in the fact that a fair finding-i'f that be so--of
innocence has been recorded by one court. It may be conctusive, for
the judgment of acquittal may be ex facie wrong, the likelihood of
desperate reprisal, if enlarged, may be a deterrent and his own safety
may be more in prison than in the vengefut village where feuds have
provoked the violent offence. It depends.
Antecedents of the man
and socio-geographical circumstances have a bearing only from this
angle. Police exaggerations of prospective misc~duct of the accused,
if enlarged, must be soberly sized up lest danger of excesses · and itijustice creep subtly into the discretionary curial technique .. Bad record
and police prediction of c~iminal prospects to invalidate the bail plea
are admissible in principle but shall not stampede the court into a
complacent refusal.
Realism is a component of humanism which is the heart of the
legal system. We come across cases where
parties have alreaoy
suffered 3, 4 and in one case (the other day it was unearthed) over
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I 0 years in prison. These persons may perhaps be acquitted~fficult to guess. If they are, the injustice of innocence long in rigorous
incarceration inflicted by the protraction of curial processes is an
H
irrevocable injury. And, taking a pragmatic view, while life imprisonment may, in Jaw, last a whole life, in practice it hardly survives ten
years, thanks to rules of remission.
Thus, at the worst, the prisoner
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786
SUPREME
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REPORTS
[ 1978] 2 S·C·R•
may have to serve some more years, and, at the best, law is vicariously
guilty of dilatory deprivation of citizen's liberty, a consummation vigilantly to be vetoed.
So, a circumstance of some consequence, when
considering a motion for bail, is the period in prison already spent and
the prospect of the appeal being delayed for hearing, having regard
to the suffocating crowd of dockets pressing before the few Benches.
It is , not out of place to mention that if the State takes up a
flexible attitude it may be possible to permit Jong spells of parole,
under controlled conditions, so that fear that the full freedom if bailed
out, might be abused, may be eliminated by this experimental measure,
punctuated by reversion to prison.
Unremitting insulation in the
harsh and hardened company of prisoners leads to many unmentionable vices that humanizing interludes of parole are part of the compassionate constitutionalism of our system.
The. basics being thus illuminated, we have to apply them to the
tangled knot of specifics projected by each case.
The delicate light
of the law favours release unless countered by the negative criteria
necessitating that course.
The corrective instinct of the law plays
upon release orders by strapping on to them protective and curitiye
conditions.
Heavy bail from poor men is obviously wrong. PoverTy
is society's malady and sympathy, not sternness, is the judiciq] response.
Yet another factor which heavily tips the scales of justice in
favour of release Pendente lite is the thought best 'expressed by Justice Bhagwati, speaking for the Court in Kashmira Singh v. The Slate
of Punjab(1).
'.'The appellant contends in this application that ;>ending
the hearing of the appeal be
should be released on bail.
Now, the practice in this Court as also in many of the High
Courts has been not to release on bail a person who has
been sentenced to life imprisonment for an offence under
section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
The question is
whether this practice should be departed from and if so, in
what circumstances.
It is obvious that no · practice howsoever sanctified by usage and hallowed by time can be
allowed to prevail if it operates to cause injustice.
Every
practice of the Court must find its ultimate justification in
the interest of justice. The practice not to release on bail
a person who has been sentenced to life imprisonment was
evolved fo the High Courts and in this Court on the basiS'
that once a person has been found guilty and sentenced to
life imprisonment, he should not be let loose, so long as his
conviction and sentence are not set aside, but the underlying postulate of this practice was that the appeal of such
person would be disposed of within a measurable distance
of time, so ·that if be is ultimately found to be innocent, he
would not have to
remain in jail for an unduly loiig
(I) [1978] l S.C.R. 385. =A.I.R. 1977 S.C. 2147 at 2148.
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BABU SINGH v. u. P. (Krishna Tyer,!.)
787
period. The rationale. of this. practic~ can have no application where the Court is not m a position to dispose of the
appeal for five or six years. It would indeed. be a travesty
of justice to keep a person in jail for a penod of five or
six years for an offence which is ultimately found not to
have been committed by him.
Can the Court ever compensate him for his incarceration which is found to be unjustified?
Would it be just at all for the Court to tell a
person : "We have admitted your appeal because we think
you have a prima facie case, but unfortunately we have no
time to hear your appeal for quite a few years and, therefore, until we hear your appeal, you must remain in jail,
even though you may be innocent?'' What confidence
would such administration of justice inspire in the mind of
the public ? It may quite conceivably happen, and it has in
fact happened in a few cases in· this Court, that a person
may serve out his full term of imprisonment before his appeal is taken up for hearing.
Would a judge not be overwhelmed with a feeling of contribution while acquitting such
a person after hearing the appeal?
Would it not be an .
affront to his sense of justice? Of what avail would the
acquittal be to a ·person who has already served out his term
· of imprisonment or at any rate a major part of it ? It is,
therefore, absolutely essential that the practice which this
Court has been following in the past must be reconsidered
and so long as this Court is not in a position to hear the
appeal of an accused within a reasonable period of time,
the Court should ordinarily unless there are cogent grounds
for acting otherwise, release the accused on bail in cases
where special leave has been granted to the accused to appeal against his conviction and sentence."
Having regard to this constollation of
considerations, carefully
viewed in the jurisprudential setting above silhourtcd, we are of the
view, that subject to certain safeguards, the petitioners are eligible to
be enlarged on bail.
The endemic pathology of factious
scrimmage and blood-shed
should be pre-empted by suitable safeguards,
even if
we are inclined to bail out the petitioners. So, we direct that the petitioners
be released on their own recognisances in a sum of Rs. 5,000/- each,
with one surety for each in a like sum, subject to two
conditions,
viz._, fir_stly, that the petitioners shall not enter Bharaiyam village
which is alleged to be the hot-bed of clan clashes according to the
prosecution and secondly, the petitioners shall report at the Tandiawan Police Station (District Hardor) once every week.
We direct
the Sub-Tnspector of Police station concerned to see that both the
conditions are observed. In the event of breach of either condition,
the prosecntion will be at liberty to move this Court for cancellation of the bail hereby granted. ,
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Bail granted