Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
Section 438—Denial of anticipatory bail and direction to surrender before the court and seek regular bail—Appeal—FIR registered under Section 498A, 323/504/506 of IPC and Sections 3 & 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act—Appellant co-operated with investigation—There are no startling features or elements that stand out or any exceptional fact disentitling the appellant to the grant of anticipatory bail—Once the charge-sheet was filed and there was no impediment, at least on the part of accused, the court having regard to the nature of offences, the allegations and the maximum sentence of the offences they were likely to carry, ought to have granted the bail as a matter of course—However, court did not do so but mechanically rejected and, virtually, to rub salt in the wound directed the appellant to surrender and seek regular bail before the trial court—High Court fell into error in adopting such a casual approach—Impugned order of rejecting the bail and directing the appellant, to surrender and later seek bail, therefore, cannot stand, and is hereby set aside—All the courts ceased of proceedings directed to strictly follow the law laid down in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, 2014 (8) SCR 128.
[Paras 12 & 13]