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Fakhrey Alam v. The State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2021 INSC 183Decided 15 Mar 2021
Criminal Appeal No. 319 of 2021
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul · Justice R. Subhash Reddy

Background

Fakhrey Alam was arrested in 2017 in an FIR alleging offences under the IPC, the Arms Act, and Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). A first charge sheet covering the IPC/Arms Act offences was filed within 180 days, but the charge sheet for the UAPA offence (which needed government sanction) was filed only after 211 days: two days after the accused had already applied for default bail. The trial court and the Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) refused default bail, treating the UAPA charge sheet as merely a "supplementary" charge sheet to the earlier one.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the State could not use the device of calling it a "supplementary" charge sheet to defeat the accused's right to default bail once the 180-day period for the UAPA offence had expired without a charge sheet being filed. Relying on its earlier ruling in Bikramjit Singh v. State of Punjab, the Court reiterated that default bail under the first proviso to Section 167(2) CrPC is a fundamental right flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution, not a mere statutory right, and arises automatically once the prescribed period lapses without a charge sheet. The Court set aside the High Court's order and granted the appellant default bail on terms to be fixed by the trial court, allowing the appeal with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

If police fail to file a charge sheet for a particular offence within the statutory time limit, an accused in custody gets an enforceable, fundamental right to default bail for that offence, and the prosecution cannot stretch the clock by labelling a late charge sheet as merely "supplementary."

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

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