Court nod must for re-arrest of accused on bail: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that an accused who is already on bail cannot be automatically re-arrested by the investigating agency merely because a new cognisable and non-bailable offence has been added at the stage of filing the charge sheet.

Clarifying the legal position, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan said the investigating agency must first obtain a specific order from the court that had granted bail before arresting the accused for the newly added offence.

“In a case where an accused has already been granted bail, the investigating authority on addition of an offence or offences may not proceed to arrest the accused, but for arresting the accused on such addition of offence or offences it needs to obtain an order to arrest the accused from the Court which had granted the bail,” the bench observed.

The ruling came while the court was hearing a criminal appeal in a dowry death case challenging an Allahabad High Court order that had granted only limited anticipatory bail to the appellant, the brother-in-law of the deceased. The High Court had restricted the anticipatory bail till the filing of the charge sheet.

Setting aside the High Court’s order, the Supreme Court held that once anticipatory bail is granted, it ordinarily continues without a fixed expiry. It noted that the filing of a charge sheet, taking of cognisance or issuance of summons does not automatically terminate bail protection unless special reasons are recorded.

The apex court consequently extended the benefit of anticipatory bail to the appellant, while also laying down guidelines for cases where additional non-bailable offences are introduced after bail has been granted.