{"id":200349,"date":"2022-08-17T17:55:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T12:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=200349"},"modified":"2022-08-17T17:55:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T12:25:38","slug":"upma-gautam-writes-supreme-courts-contradictory-verdicts-reinforce-the-need-for-a-bail-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/upma-gautam-writes-supreme-courts-contradictory-verdicts-reinforce-the-need-for-a-bail-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Upma Gautam writes: Supreme Court\u2019s contradictory verdicts reinforce the need for a Bail Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cSupreme Court\u2019s contradictory verdicts reinforce the need for a bail act\u201d<\/strong> published in the Indian Express<\/strong> on 17th<\/sup> August 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 2 Important Provisions of the Constitution of India<\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>Fundamental Rights<\/p>\n

News:<\/strong> Recently, in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI<\/strong>, the Supreme Court has given directions on undertrials and pre-trial detentions. The SC has asserted mandatory compliance with Sections 41 and 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).<\/p>\n

Criminal Justice Reforms<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In the first decade of the 21st century, Section 41 <\/strong>was modified and Section 41A <\/strong>was incorporated into the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). <\/strong>The objective was to reduce the number of arrests by the police for offences punishable by up to 7 years<\/strong> of imprisonment. Further, these initiatives had the potential to reduce custodial violence and lower the burden on courts.<\/p>\n

The SC ruling<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The SC affirmed its 2014 verdict in Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar Case<\/strong>, in which it directed state governments to instruct their police officers to not arrest the accused automatically when the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may be less than seven years.<\/p>\n

The Court said that investigating agencies are accountable for compliance with Section 41 and 41A of CrPC.<\/p>\n

It reiterated the importance of the \u201cbail over jail\u201d rule and issued a slew of step-by-step procedures<\/strong> to prevent unnecessary arrest and remand.<\/p>\n

The government should enact the Bail Act<\/strong> to inject clarity into bail-related matters<\/strong>. While framing, the government should take a cue from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and many other legal systems as well as the recommendations of the 268th Law Commission report<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ongoing issues in Indian Criminal Justice System (CJS)<\/strong><\/h5>\n

As per the Prison Statistics of India 2020<\/strong>, nearly 76% of prisoners are undertrials. The large percentage of undertrials<\/strong> in prison and pre-trial detentions<\/strong> are often a result of unnecessary arrests by investigating agencies and further the unfair application of bail provisions<\/strong> by the court. <\/strong>This led to a violation of the cardinal rule<\/strong> of the presumption of innocence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite direction, the investigating agencies do not judiciously apply Sections 41 and 41A of the CrPC. They continue to take a mechanical approach<\/strong> that regards detentions as the only effective option<\/strong> to complete the investigation<\/strong>. Therefore, a lot of bail applications are pending before district courts, high courts, and the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Arguments in favour of making immediate arrests and denial of bail to the undertrials<\/strong><\/p>\n

A section of commentators believes that the arrest of the wrongdoer is seen as an effective redressal mechanism by the victim.<\/p>\n

Further, if a police officer does not go for immediate detention, it may be considered as a sign of complacency of the authorities.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Section 41A has provisions that mandate the immediate arrest of the accused.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, recently, In Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary v. Union of India (PMLA case)<\/strong>, the Supreme Court upheld the arbitrary conditions of bail under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act<\/strong>, thus discarding the \u201cpresumption of innocence\u201d principle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What should be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Court should not give a contradictory verdict <\/strong>because the operations of investigating agencies do not go in isolation from that of courts. The conflicting and ambiguous approach of courts towards pre-trial incarceration<\/strong> and bail<\/strong> provides investigating agencies avenues to justify flouting of the due processes.<\/p>\n

The confusion created by the two decisions of the apex court reinforces the need for a Bail Act.<\/p>\n

Investigating agencies and police offices need to sync their approach with the principles of natural justice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on an article \u201cSupreme Court\u2019s contradictory verdicts reinforce the need for a bail act\u201d published in the Indian Express on 17th August 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 Important Provisions of the Constitution of India Relevance: Fundamental Rights News: Recently, in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI, the Supreme Court has given directions… Continue reading Upma Gautam writes: Supreme Court\u2019s contradictory verdicts reinforce the need for a Bail Act<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10343,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-200349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704913339},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}