Summary
By majority, the Court held that the sixty-day default-bail period applied to the charged corruption offence carrying four to ten years’ imprisonment. The ninety-day category required death, life imprisonment or a minimum term of ten years. The accused had invoked default bail orally before the charge sheet, so its later filing did not defeat the exercised right. Pant J. dissented on the applicable period and procedural invocation.
Issues
- Whether a four-to-ten-year punishment attracted sixty or ninety days under Section 167(2).
- Whether oral invocation in the pending bail hearing preserved the right before the charge sheet.
Provisions considered
- Section 167(2), proviso (a), Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973The reproduced provision was construed by the majority to reserve ninety days for death, life imprisonment or a minimum ten-year term; other charged offences fell within sixty days. (¶¶ Lokur J., 15–27, Gupta J., 7–21, 30)
Held
- The majority read not less than ten years as a minimum threshold, not a maximum sentence that could reach ten years. Where death or life imprisonment was available the ninety-day category applied regardless of a lower minimum. (¶¶ Lokur J., 25–27, Gupta J., 10–21, 30)
- The default-bail contention had been orally made and decided in the High Court after sixty days and before the charge sheet. On these facts, absence of a separately labelled written application did not defeat the invocation. An exercised right coupled with willingness to furnish bail could not be frustrated by later filing. (¶¶ Lokur J., 33–47, Gupta J., 23–30)
- The Lokpal Act amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act applied irrespective of whether prosecution originated under the Lokpal Act; all three opinions agreed on that issue. (¶¶ Lokur J., 48, Pant J., 10, Gupta J., 3, 30(1))
- Pant J. would have applied ninety days and required invocation before the competent trial forum; that was the dissent. Default bail did not decide trial merits or immunise the accused from lawful arrest on cogent grounds or in another case. (¶¶ Pant J., 20–31, Lokur J., 49–51, Gupta J., 30)
Result
By majority, High Court refusal set aside and release on default bail directed on reasonable conditions. Companion petition dismissed as infructuous; lawful subsequent arrest and merits remedies preserved.