Bail can be cancelled if its grant is based on irrelevant material

The Delhi High Court in the matter of Rohit Bansal v. State and Anr. has rescinded the order passed by the trial court which granted bail based on the irrelevant material.

In this matter, petitioner along with his friends went to a club at Hauz Khas and got into an altercation with some guys at the club. After the petitioner and his friends have left the club, respondent and his associates took out a rod and started beating Rupesh (one of the friends of the petitioner.) Rupesh was badly injured and after being admitted to the hospital he succumbed to the injuries on 26.10.2015.

After the investigation, the respondent and his associates were arrested and charges were framed against them under section 302/308/ 34 of IPC.

Nonetheless, the trial court granted bail to the respondent on the basis of the CCTV footage that no role can be assigned to the respondent in the scuffle that took place on the day of the incident.

The petitioner challenged the impugned order of the trial court of granting bail to the respondent as unsustainable in the eyes of law because the incident was witnessed by many eyewitnesses who have identified the respondent as the perpetrator of the crime and the CCTV footage did not cover the entire place of occurrence.

The crime weapon, clothes that the respondent was wearing at the time of the occurrence of the incident were all also seized during the investigation.

However, the counsel for the respondent urged that the discretion for granting bail was judiciously exercised by the court as the respondents were in the custody for about 16 months and the incident was not a preplanned rather just occurred at the spur of the moment.

The High Court of Delhi has set aside the order granting bail, stating that such orders can be canceled to prevent a miscarriage of justice, if they are based on irrelevant material, “ This Court is conscious that cancellation of bail is a serious matter. Bail once granted can be canceled only when there exist very cogent and overwhelming circumstances. It is settled law that parameters for grant of bail and cancellation of bail are different. However, if the Trial Court while granting bail acts on irrelevant materials, bail can be canceled.The bail can be canceled even in cases where the order granting bail suffers from serious infirmities resulting in a miscarriage of justice. If the Court granting bail ignores relevant materials indicating a prima facie involvement of the accused or takes into account irrelevant material, which has no relevance to the question of grant of bail to the accused, the High Court would be justified in canceling the bail.

Thereafter, the Court observed, “ Such orders are against the well-recognized principles underlying the power to grant bail. Such orders are legally infirm and vulnerable leading to miscarriage of justice and absence of supervening circumstances such as the propensity of the accused to temper the evidence, to flee from justice etc. would not deter the Court from canceling the bail.”