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Bohatti Devi vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. (listed as The State of Uttar Pradesh vs. Ashwani Kumar)

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 1052Decided 30 Sept 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 1695 of 2022
M.R. Shah · Krishna Murari

Background

Respondent no. 2, an accused facing trial for murder and criminal conspiracy (Sections 302 and 120B IPC) in a 2014 FIR from Baraut, Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh), had earlier failed to get the case against him quashed, both before the High Court and on a subsequent special leave petition before the Supreme Court, and had been arrested in 2021 after a non-bailable warrant was issued. Despite this history, the Allahabad High Court granted him bail, and the original complainant (through the State) appealed against that bail order.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the High Court's bail order was unsustainable because it failed to consider the seriousness and gravity of the murder and conspiracy charges, ignored the relevant material in the charge sheet, gave no cogent reasons germane to bail, and overlooked the accused's history, including his failed quashing attempts and his arrest on a non-bailable warrant. The High Court had also wrongly granted parity with co-accused without examining whether their roles and the allegations against them were actually comparable to those against respondent no. 2. The Court quashed the bail order and directed the accused to surrender within two weeks, failing which a non-bailable warrant would issue, while clarifying that the trial court should proceed with the trial uninfluenced by these bail-related observations.

Lesson Learnt

A bail order in a serious offence like murder must reflect genuine consideration of the gravity of the charge, the material in the charge sheet, and the accused's own conduct and litigation history: bail cannot be granted on parity with co-accused without comparing their actual roles, and the Supreme Court will readily cancel bail granted without such reasoning.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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