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Ketan Suresh Pawar & Anr. v. Yuvraj Sandeepan Sawant & Anr.

Special Leave Petition (Criminal) · 2019 INSC 967Decided 27 Aug 2019
Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 4158 of 2019
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

The complainants in a cheating case, where the accused allegedly induced the complainant to pay over Rs.26.5 lakhs for a flat under a fake "special quota" housing scheme and gave dishonoured cheques, challenged a Bombay High Court order granting bail to one of the accused. The accused had been arrested about four years after the FIR was filed, and his bail application had already been rejected by both the trial court and the Sessions Court before the High Court granted him bail. The complainants argued the High Court's bail order gave no reasons and ignored the seriousness of the fraud allegations.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the High Court had in fact passed a detailed, reasoned order on the date in question, even though the full order was uploaded only later: the initially available order was simply its operative portion, which is common practice when a person's liberty is at stake. The Court held that mere allegations of a serious offence, by themselves, do not justify denying bail before trial, especially where the accused was in custody since arrest, the co-accused had already been granted bail, and there was no evidence the accused had evaded arrest or violated any bail condition. Distinguishing a precedent cited by the complainants (involving a habitual offender and witness-murder allegations), the Court held the High Court's exercise of discretion was not erroneous and dismissed the special leave petition as devoid of merit.

Lesson Learnt

A bail order is not invalid merely because its full reasoned text is uploaded after the operative release order is issued, and courts will not disturb a reasoned grant of bail simply because the underlying allegations are serious: the seriousness of an allegation is only one of several factors weighed, not an automatic bar to bail before conviction.

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

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