Practice Of Courts To Remand Accused To Custody The Moment They Appear In Response To Summoning Order Has To Be Tested- SC
The Supreme Court said that the practice followed by Courts to remand the accused to custody, the moment they appear in response to the summoning order has to be tested in an appropriate case. The Court granted Anticipatory Bail to the appellant as the CBI was not seeking their custody for further investigation.
The Bench of Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice Pankaj Mithal noted that “...the appellants apprehend arrest, not at the behest of the CBI but at the behest of the Trial Court. This is for the reason that in some parts of the country, there seems to be a practice followed by Courts to remand the accused to custody, the moment they appear in response to the summoning order. The correctness of such a practice has to be tested in an appropriate case.”
Advocate Nagendra Singh appeared for the petitioner and Additional Solicitor General Vikramjeet Banerjee appeared for the respondent.
In this case, the appellants had approached the Apex Court against the orders of the Allahabad High Court wherein their Anticipatory Bail applications were rejected. A FIR was registered for offences under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 read with Section 120B Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The Court noted that the CBI did not require the custodial interrogation of the appellants during the period of investigation and all it wanted was the presence of the accused before the Trial Court to face trial. Further, it also noted that the primary focus was on documentary evidence on record.
Therefore, the Apex Court held that “...we are of the considered view that the appellants are entitled to be released on bail, in the event of the Court choosing to remand them to custody, when they appear in response to the summoning order. Therefore, the appeals are allowed and the appellants are directed to be released on bail, in the event of their arrest”
Accordingly, the Appeal was allowed.
Cause Title- Mahdoom Bava v. Central Bureau of Investigation
