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Yedala Subba Rao & Anr. vs Union of India

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 382Decided 17 Apr 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 1153 of 2023
Abhay S. Oka · Rajesh Bindal

Background

On 23 September 2018, a sitting MLA and a former MLA in Andhra Pradesh were killed by alleged CPI (Maoist) cadres while travelling to a public function. The appellants, accused nos. 46 and 47 among 45 named accused, were arrested in October 2018 and charged under provisions of the IPC, UAPA and the Explosives Substances Act for allegedly planting a landmine, providing shelter/logistic support to Maoists, and being in telephone contact with a co-accused already granted bail by the High Court. They had been in custody for over four and a half years without charges even being framed, with 144 prosecution witnesses yet to be examined.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court scrutinised the evidence relied on by the prosecution and found much of it legally weak: the confessional statements recorded in the "Mediators' Report and Seizure Panchnama" were prima facie inadmissible under Section 25 of the Evidence Act, and the claimed "discoveries" under Section 27 did not meet the legal test laid down in Pulukuri Kottaya and Jaffar Hussain Dastagir because the accused's statements did not actually lead to the discovery of any new fact. The Court also noted that a similarly-placed co-accused (no. 84) had already secured bail from the High Court on materially the same call-record evidence. Applying the "prima facie true" standard under Section 43D(5) of the UAPA, the Court held that, taking the prosecution's own material at face value, there were no reasonable grounds to believe the accusations against the appellants were prima facie true. Given the prolonged custody, unframed charges, and slow pace of trial, the Court set aside the lower court's bail denial and directed the Special Judge to release the appellants on appropriate conditions within a week, clarifying these were only prima facie observations that would not bind the trial.

Lesson Learnt

Even under UAPA's stringent bail bar, courts will look closely at whether the prosecution's evidence, such as confessional "discovery" statements, actually meets basic admissibility standards; long pre-trial custody with no realistic prospect of an early trial weighs heavily in favour of bail.

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

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