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Serious Fraud Investigation Office v. Aditya Sarda

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 477Decided 9 Apr 2025
Criminal Appeal arising from SLP(Crl.) No. 13956 of 2023 (decided together with a batch of 15 connected criminal appeals)
Justice Bela M. Trivedi · Justice Prasanna B. Varale

Background

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) investigated the Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society, a large multi-state credit society allegedly controlled by a family group that funnelled about Rs. 1,700 crore in improper loans to its own companies using forged documents. After a criminal complaint was filed against 181 accused persons, the Special Court at Gurugram issued bailable and then non-bailable warrants against several accused (including Aditya Sarda) when they failed to appear, and eventually initiated "proclaimed offender" proceedings against them for evading the warrants for years. Despite this history of evasion, the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted anticipatory bail to these accused in 2023, prompting SFIO to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court set aside the High Court's grant of anticipatory bail in most of the cases (dismissing only the SFIO's appeals concerning three accused whose facts genuinely differed) and directed the accused to surrender within a week. It held that once a court issues an arrest warrant or initiates proclamation proceedings against a person who has evaded appearing in court despite knowing about the case, that person forfeits the right to seek anticipatory bail except in truly exceptional circumstances, because granting bail at that stage rewards defiance of the legal process. The Court also emphasised that economic offences under Section 447 of the Companies Act are treated as a serious category with a mandatory twin-condition test for bail, and that High Courts must seriously examine a person's conduct in evading warrants rather than granting bail casually.

Lesson Learnt

Deliberately hiding from the police or courts and dodging arrest warrants after you know a criminal case is pending against you will normally disqualify you from getting anticipatory bail later. Courts view active evasion of legal process as forfeiting that protection, especially in serious economic-fraud cases.

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

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