When is it best to apply for bail in IPC 302 case ?

515 votes

Better to surender as one of your member is in police cstudy and apply as soon as possible for the bail with the help of your advocate as soon as you surender this will easy the process of getting the bail and closing of your case after bail

Advocate Brij Bhushan Pandit LawRato

702 votes

In Chaman Lal v. State of U.P.[1], this Court, while dealing with an application for bail, has stated that certain factors are to be borne in mind and they are: - "..... (i) the nature of accusation and the severity of punishment in case of conviction and the nature of supporting evidence, (ii) reasonable apprehension of tampering with the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant, and (iii) prima facie satisfaction of the court in support of the charge."

In Prasanta Kumar Sarkar v. Ashis Chatterjee[2], this Court, while emphasizing on the exercise of discretionary power generally has to be done in strict compliance with the basic principles laid down in plethora of decisions of this Court, has observed as follows: -

"9. among other circumstances, the factors which are to be borne in mind while considering an application for bail are:

i. whether there is any prima facie or reasonable ground to be believed that the accused had committed the offence;

ii. nature and gravity of the accusation;

iii. severity of the punishment in the event of conviction;

iv. danger of the accused absconding or fleeing, if released on bail;

v. character, behavior, means, position and standing of the accused;

vi. likelihood of the offence being repeated;

vii. reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being influenced; and

viii. danger, of course, of justice being thwarted by grant of bail."

23. The said principles have been reiterated in Ash Mohammad v. Shiv Raj Singh alias Lalla Babu and another[3].

In this context, we may refer with profit to the recent pronouncement in Central Bureau of Investigation v. V. Vijay Sai Reddy[4] wherein the learned Judges have expressed thus: - "28. While granting bail, the court has to keep in mind the nature of accusation, the nature of evidence in support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character of the accused, circumstances which are peculiar to the accused, reasonable possibility of securing the presence of the accused at the trial, reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being tampered with, the larger interests of the public/ State and other similar considerations. It has also to be kept in mind that for the purpose of granting bail, the Legislature has used the words "reasonable grounds for believing" instead of "the evidence" which means the Court dealing with the grant of bail can only satisfy it as to whether there is a genuine case against the accused and that the prosecution will be able to produce prima facie evidence in support of the charge. It is not expected, at this stage, to have the evidence establishing the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt."

Advocate Vijay Raghav Singh LawRato

564 votes

If you are absconding, then you should immediately surrender "before the court". As soon as the police remand is over and you are sent to jail custody, you should file application for bail. If police does not file challan (final report) within 90 days of your arrest or surrender then you will be entitled to bail on filing an application in that behalf. Meanwhile there is no need to wait for filing regular bail application.

Advocate Pradeep Naik LawRato