Who can get bail in India? | The Hindu

On July 11, the Supreme Court urged the Centre to bring a new law to simplify and streamline the process of bail. It was referring to the Bail Act of the U.K
It pointed out that Jails in India are flooded with undertrial prisoners some of whom don’t even need to be arrested.
The court also observed that arrest is a “draconian” measure that should be used “sparingly”. It held that bail continues to be the rule and jail an exception.
What is a bail?
Bail is the temporary release of the accused in a criminal case when the trial is pending and a judgement is awaited. There isn’t any separate law in the Indian legal system that defines bail. But related provisions are mentioned in the CrPC (Code of criminal procedure) and punishments under the IPC (Indian Penal code)
There are bailable offences and non bailable offences.
As per Section 436, bail is a right in bailable offences and the police or court, whoever has custody, is bound to release the accused after they have submitted a bail bond, with or without surety.
For a non-bailable offence, an accused cannot claim bail as a right. The discretion lies with the courts. In such cases, Section 437 empowers the Magistrate to deal with pleas, except for offences that are punishable with death or imprisonment for life.
A bail is also granted if the accused is below 16 years, someone who is sick, or is a woman.
There are different types of bails
Regular Bail:
This bail is granted to the person who has been arrested or is in custody.
Interim Bail:
This is a temporary bail granted by the court for a brief period while the applicant waits for an anticipatory or regular bail.
Anticipatory Bail:
A person can apply for anticipatory bail when they find out that they can be arrested for a non-bailable offense.
Anticipatory bail falls under section 438 of CrPC.
Why does the Supreme Court want a separate bail law?
A bench compromising of Justices S.K. Kaul and M.M. Sundresh urged the centre to reform the bail laws. They pointed out that the jails were overflowing in India while conviction rates remained an abysmal low. They added that the statistics placed before them indicate that more than two-thirds of the inmates of the prisons constitute undertrial prisoners. Of this category of prisoners, the majority may not even be required to be arrested.
As of 2020, jail occupancy rates were over 100% in 15 States. Uttar Pradesh was at 177%.
To tackle this the court asked the Centre to consider bringing a separate and comprehensive law to deal with bails, especially to make it a simple procedure.
They suggested the centre bring into effect a bail act to streamline the process.
It added that Bail applications have to be disposed of within two weeks except when provisions mandate otherwise.
On anticipatory bail, it said a plea has to be decided within six weeks.
It said that there need not be any insistence on a bail plea while considering a plea under CrPC Sections 88, Power to take bond for appearance’
170, Cases to be sent to Magistrate, when evidence is sufficient
204 - Issue of process.
209 - Commitment of case to Court of Session when offence is triable exclusively by it.
The supreme court also warned that the Investigating agencies and officers have to comply with Sections 41 and 41A failing which will entitle the accused to bail.
Section 41 deals with the arrest in a cognisable offence where police officers can arrest without a warrant. The punishment is imprisonment for a term of less than seven years.
Section 41A relates to the procedure of the notice of appearance before a policeman in cases where the arrest is not required.
In the ruling, the supreme court bench referred to U.K.’s law on bail.
This Bail Act of 1976 governs the procedure for granting or denying bail.
The Act recognises a “general right” to bail and aims to reduce the number of inmates to prevent clogging of jails.
It mentions the presumption that an accused should be granted bail unless there is a justified reason to refuse it.
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[@3eyedhuman]

When it comes to law and order, so many powers deteriorating the democratic institutions. Strengthening law and order is the only way to get justice equally without any discrimination. Then automatically social development will grow up and we can exercise many acts in a more better way than just now. Bail is one of the key point in L&O. Hope Parliament would make a better descision for its nation.

[@siddharthgirigoswami138]

the rich and govt-related is the answer💀

[@codewalters]

Apparently if you wear saffron you get bail immediately LOL!

[@DeepakKumarYadavBME]

The background music is very disturbing

[@swayamcurrentaffairs9601]

👍👍👍🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

[@madanmohanchakrabarti880]

सरकार को अपने को छुपाने का रास्ता बन्ध कैसे करेगा??

[@rvunited1524]

So even granting of bail is gender biased

[@subbulakshmimanickavasagam3779]

In court

[@prabhushankar8520]

Good.

[@esakirajas2350]

Good

[@nithishkumar7765]

Referring to IPC and CrPC, the images in the clipping shows The Constitution of India.

[@rudra20048]

Rich

[@akashkumardigal656]

Again wastage of money, spending on these convicts. It's time to save this money.

[@johnnydoe3603]

Mass Murderers from Ruling Party. 🤭

[@narasimhamurthy7081]

Any one with money and good lawyer you can get bail. Useless video.