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Jarnail Singh vs. State of Punjab & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 274Decided 7 Mar 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 357 of 2022
Uday Umesh Lalit · S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

An FIR was registered against the appellant in Kapurthala, Punjab, in September 2019 for offences including cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy (Sections 420, 465, 468, 471, 120-B, 467 IPC). Apprehending arrest, he applied for anticipatory bail, but the application was rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, which had already granted him interim protection from arrest back in January 2020 while the appeal was pending.

Decision Breakdown

The State's counsel informed the Court that the investigation was essentially complete, though the appellant had not cooperated with it so far. Considering the overall circumstances, including the roughly two years of interim protection already in place without incident, the Court held that the appellant was entitled to anticipatory bail. It allowed the appeal, set aside the High Court's order, and granted anticipatory bail conditioned on furnishing cash security of Rs. 50,000 with two sureties, full cooperation with the investigation (including giving sample signatures/handwriting), and mandatory attendance before the Investigating Officer on a specified date and through a specified week.

Lesson Learnt

Even where a High Court has refused anticipatory bail, the Supreme Court can grant it where the accused has cooperated (or is willing to cooperate) with the investigation and there is no ongoing risk of evasion: anticipatory bail is a protective, not punitive, tool and can come with binding conditions like cash security and mandatory appearance for cooperation.

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

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