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TMI Blog2021 (10) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... his order which had been upheld by the impugned judgment dated 09.07.2021. We thus protected the Appellant against arrest with the direction to continue to attend the trial Court proceedings virtually in the then prevalent scenario and as and when physical Courts start working, the proceedings would be attended physically. The general principles Under Section 170 Code of Criminal Procedure, the most apposite observations are in sub-para (v) of the High Court judgment in the context of an Accused in a non-bailable offence whose custody was not required during the period of investigation. In such a scenario, it is appropriate that the Accused is released on bail as the circumstances of his having not been arrested during investigation or n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... k the interrogation of the Appellant on or before filing of the charge sheet. Charge sheet has been filed. This being the position, learned Counsel for the Appellant confines the relief only to appear before the Trial Court and apply for regular bail and he be not arrested in that period of time. In the given factual situation, we grant protection to the Appellant for a period of 8 weeks, within which he may apply for regular bail before the Trial Court and obtain necessary orders. xxxxxx 4. A reading of the aforesaid thus makes it clear that custodial interrogation of the Appellant was not required during investigation and charge sheet having been filed, there was really no occasion to arrest the Appellant. We thus granted liberty ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sically as proceedings in the Court commenced accordingly. 7. Learned Counsel for the Appellant has brought to our attention to the proceedings recorded on 26.08.2021 before the Magistrate to submit that the highhandedness of the Respondent is apparent from the fact that the public prosecutor, despite these orders from this Court, sought to plead that the Appellant had not been allowed any bail, non bailable warrants had been issued against him, the direction of this Court for the Appellant not to be arrested did not mean that he could not be sent to judicial custody and since this Court observed that he could attend virtually till physical hearing started, which had by then resumed, he should be sent to judicial custody. We may only not ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... RJ 629 have received the imprimatur of this Court, the extracted portions from the judgment of the Delhi High Court did not include para 26. The said paragraph deals with directions issued to the criminal Courts and we would like to extract the portion of the same as under: 26. Arrest of a person for less serious or such kinds of offence or offences those can be investigated without arrest by the police cannot be brooked by any civilized society. Directions for Criminal Courts: (i) Whenever officer-in-charge of police station or Investigating Agency like CBI files a charge-sheet without arresting the Accused during investigation and does not produce the Accused in custody as referred in Section 170, Code of Criminal Procedure the M ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nce who has neither been arrested by the police/Investigating Agency during investigation nor produced in custody as envisaged in Section 170, Code of Criminal Procedure call upon the Accused to move a bail application if the Accused does not move it on his own and release him on bail as the circumstance of his having not been arrested during investigation or not being produced in custody is itself sufficient to entitle him to be released on bail. Reason is simple. If a person has been at large and free for several years and has not been even arrested during investigation, to send him to jail by refusing bail suddenly, merely because charge-sheet has been filed is against the basic principles governing grant or refusal of bail. xxxxxxxxx ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent to entitle him to be released on bail. The rationale has been succinctly set out that if a person has been enlarged and free for many years and has not even been arrested during investigation, to suddenly direct his arrest and to be incarcerated merely because charge sheet has been filed would be contrary to the governing principles for grant of bail. We could not agree more with this. 12. If we may say, the observation hereinabove would supplement our observations made in Siddharth v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Anr. (supra) and must be read together with that judgment. 13. The given factual scenario completely fits the aforesaid as the Appellant was never taken into custody during investigation. Suffice to say that it would be a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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