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.

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