10-Day Bail Rule amended, cut down to 2 days by Allahabad HC

An arrestee applying for bail in Uttar Pradesh may now not have to suffer the 10 days of mandatory imprisonment - as the Allahabad High Court has amended the 10-day-rule and brought it down to 2 days of compulsory notice to the Government Counsel on a bail plea before it is taken up for hearing.

Sub-rule (3) of Rule 18 of the Allahabad High Court Rules, 1952 earlier stated that no order granting bail can be made on an application unless a notice has been given to the Government advocate and 10 days have elapsed between the notice and the hearing of the said application. This sub-rule has been amended by the Court.

The High Court had been asked by the Supreme Court to take a decision within 6 weeks on the representation of petitioner - Syed Mohammad Haider Rizvi, a lawyer working for a telecom company. The counsel for Rizvi prayed for invalidating the 10-day rule as it being against the right to life and personal liberty.

The amended rule has replaced the period of 10 days by a period of 2 days and now states that a bail application can only be placed before the Court after a notice has been served to the government advocate and a period of 2 days have elapsed from the date of the notice.

Rizvi's counsel stated that this rule provided for a mandatory 10-day-prison period for an accused, even for his bail application to be taken up for hearing and thereby ignored the fundamental rule of & lsquo bail is rule, jail is an exception'. He also said that this rule could have been justified in earlier times where communication was not instant, however, with the development of technology, this rule had no relevance.