Supreme Court issues guidelines on granting bail to accused persons after chargesheet is filed
The guidelines apply to accused persons who were not arrested during the investigation of the case, and who cooperated with authorities.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued guidelines for granting bail to accused persons after a chargesheet has been filed in a case, PTI reported.
The guidelines apply to those accused who were not arrested during investigation, and who cooperated with the authorities.
The court accepted suggestions made in this regard by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju and senior advocate Sidharth Luthra. It issued the guidelines while hearing a petition by Satender Kumar Antil, a man who named in a chargesheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a corruption case.
On September 3, the Supreme Court had held, in a separate case, that Section 170 of the Code of Criminal Procedure did not require a police officer to arrest each accused person when a chargesheet was filed, according to Live Law.
The legal provision deals with the procedure that the police should follow while sending a case to a magistrate on the completion of their investigation.
The Supreme Court had noted that some trial courts insisted on the arrest of the accused persons as a pre-requisite to taking a chargesheet on record. But this practice was misplaced, a bench of the Supreme Court had held.
On September 14, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh said, in the context of Antil’s case, that it will frame guidelines for granting of bail after a chargesheet is filed.
The Supreme Court on Thursday also laid down four categories in which to divide criminal offences. The top Court has directed that the order should be circulated to the registrars of High Courts, which are to forward them to trial courts.