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Enforcement Directorate, Government of India v. Kapil Wadhawan

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal Nos. 701-702 of 2020)Decided 23 Feb 2021
Criminal Appeal Nos. 701-702 of 2020
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul · Justice Hrishikesh Roy

Background

This is a referral order, not a final judgment. The Enforcement Directorate appealed against the grant of default bail to Kapil Wadhawan. The question was how to count the statutory period for filing a charge sheet, after which an accused in custody gets a right to default bail.

Decision Breakdown

This is a referral order, not a final judgment. The two-judge bench found conflicting Supreme Court decisions on whether the date of remand is included or excluded when computing that period. It referred the question to a larger bench of three judges and also sent the respondent's prayer for interim bail to that bench.

Lesson Learnt

There is no final ruling yet. How the remand day is counted for default bail was left to a larger bench.

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

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