NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said courts should stay bail orders only in very rare and exceptional circumstances as when an undertrial is released, his liberty is restored, which cannot be easily taken away on merely for the asking.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih said the court must also record brief reasons for coming to a conclusion that the case was an exceptional one and a strong prima facie case is made out for stay of bail.
"In an application made under Section 439(2) of the CrPC or Section 483(3) of the BNSS or other proceedings filed seeking cancellation of bail, the power to grant an interim stay of operation of order to bail can be exercised only in exceptional cases when a very strong prima facie case of the existence of the grounds for cancellation of bail is made out," the top court said.
It also liberty granted to an accused under the order granting bail cannot be lightly and causally interfered with by mechanically granting an ex-parte order of stay of the bail order.
The court emphasised the importance of liberty in cases where bail has been stayed while setting aside an order of the Delhi High Court, which stayed bail to Parvinder Singh Khurana, an accused in a money laundering case.
In the present case, the bench noted the ex parte order of stay granted on June 23, 2023, without considering the merits of the case, continued to operate for one year.
Khurana was granted bail by the trial court in a PMLA case on June 17, 2023 but the high court stayed the order.
The apex court stayed the high court order and restored Khurana's bail.
In its judgment, the court emphasised when an application for cancellation of bail is filed, the high court or sessions court should be very slow in granting drastic interim relief of stay of the order granting bail.
The bench said while issuing notice on an application for cancellation of bail, without passing a drastic order of stay, if the facts so warrant, the high court can, by way of an interim order, impose additional bail conditions on the accused, which will ensure that the accused does not flee.
“However, an order granting a stay to the operation of the order granting bail during the pendency of the application for cancellation of bail should be passed in very rare cases. The reason is that when an undertrial is ordered to be released on bail, his liberty is restored, which cannot be easily taken away for the asking. The undertrial is not a convict,” the bench said.
