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State of Rajasthan v. Indraj Singh and Etc.

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 341Decided 7 Mar 2025
Crl.A. No.-001242-001243-2025 (arising out of SLP(Crl.) Nos.16156-16157/2024)
Justice Sanjay Karol · Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah

Background

Indraj Singh and Salman Khan were accused of compromising a government recruitment exam (Assistant Engineer Civil competitive exam) by arranging for a dummy candidate to appear in Indraj Singh's place, tampering with the attendance sheet, and substituting a photograph on the admit card. Both were arrested in March 2024, and a cheque for Rs. 10 lakhs allegedly paid between them was recovered. Trial courts denied them bail, but the Rajasthan High Court later granted bail to both, prompting the State of Rajasthan to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that while lack of criminal antecedents and time already spent in custody are valid factors for granting bail, the High Court had failed to adequately weigh the serious nature of the offence, undermining the integrity of a public recruitment process that affects thousands of genuine aspirants. The Court reviewed established principles distinguishing "setting aside" a bail order (challenging its legality) from "cancellation" of bail (based on misconduct after release), and found the High Court's order unsustainable given the gravity of the allegations. It set aside the High Court's bail order and directed the accused to surrender within two weeks, while clarifying that they remain free to seek fresh bail before the trial court as the case proceeds, and that the presumption of innocence still applies.

Lesson Learnt

Bail in cases involving corruption of public examinations or government recruitment processes will be scrutinized strictly by courts because such offences don't just harm the accused parties but damage public trust in institutions and unfairly disadvantage everyone else competing for the same limited jobs.

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

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