Kerala High Court Mandates Disclosure Whether Applicant Is In India Or Abroad In All Anticipatory Bail Applications
|The Kerala High Court has issued a directive requiring a mandatory field in the Bail Application Filing Module for all pre-arrest bail applications, aimed at disclosing whether the accused is in India or abroad at the time of application filing. The Court has also said that the failure to do so will amount to suppression of material facts.
This change follows an order issued by the Court on October 1, 2024, in JPP No. 4/2024, which emphasized that an applicant’s location could impact the Court’s decision on bail and the imposition of specific conditions under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhitha (BNSS), 2023.
The High Court’s notice underscores that the applicant's location outside of India may significantly influence the decision-making process and the applicability of conditions under Section 482, sub-section (2), of the BNSS. The new field aims to prevent any “suppression of material facts” by mandating transparency about the applicant’s location.
"As per the order cited, it was inter alia held that if the accused person is abroad at the time of making an application for pre-arrest bail under sub-section (1) of Section 482 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhitha, 2023, the said material fact that possesses the potential to significantly influence the decision-making process of the Court and imposition of conditions as in clauses (i), (iii), etc. of sub-section (2) of Section 482 of BNSS, must be disclosed in such an application, failing which it would amount to suppression of material facts from the notice of the Court," the notice reads.
According to the notice signed by Registrar General P. Krishna Kumar, this field will be a compulsory component of all pre-arrest bail applications and will prominently display the applicant's location status in the application docket.
"Hence, in compliance with the said order, a mandatory field has been added in the Bail Application Filing Module for all pre-arrest bail applications to ascertain whether the applicant accused is in India or abroad at the time of making the Bail Application. The status of petitioners as to their being abroad at the time of filing the bail application shall be displayed in the docket," the notice reads.
The directive has been widely circulated to key legal authorities, including the Advocate General, the Director General of Prosecutions, the Bar Council of Kerala, and other officials.
Click here to read/download the Notice