"Absurd Condition", Says Supreme Court While Staying Bail Condition Requiring Victim To Be A Surety
The Supreme Court has termed a bail condition imposed by the Patna High Court "absurd", whereby the accused was granted bail on the condition that the victim should be one of the sureties. Due to the said condition, the accused continued in jail, even though the High Cout had granted bail in July, 2023.
The Vacation Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed, “It is very unfortunate to note that because of such absurd condition imposed by the High Court, the petitioner although ordered to be released on bail way back in July 2023, yet is still languishing in jail.”
AOR Vikas Gupta appeared for the Petitioner.
The petitioner, who is an accused, had prayed for bail before the Patna High Court for the offence punishable under Section 366(A) read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Before the High Court, the accused argued that the statement of the victim under Sections 161 and 164 of Cr.P.C. was recorded in which she stated that she had married the accused and that there was no allegation of kidnapping in her statement.
The High Court granted him bail, but with the condition that one of the bailors should be the victim in the case. Hence, the accused has sought to modify the order limited to the condition of surety. He had also submitted that it was practically impossible to ask the victim to stand as a surety.
The accused had also submitted that the informant and her family did not permit the victim to execute the bail bond in favour of him as she was in custody of the informant so the condition may be modified to the extent that “one of the bailors should be the close relative of the petitioner” in place of “one of the bailors should be the victim. But the High Court refused to do so.
The Supreme Court issued notice, stayed the condition imposed by the High Court and ordered the accused to be released on bail.
Cause Title: Sharwan Kumar Yadav v. State of Bihar
Appearances:
Petitioner: AOR Vikas Gupta, Advocates Mukesh Kumar Verma, Vivek Gupta, Yadunanda Bansal and Neeraj Srivastva.