Bhuvaneshwar Yadav v. State of Bihar and Ors.

Judgment

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal No. 1893 of 2008. - From the Order and Judgment dated 1··4.3.2007 of the High Court of Judicature at Patna hi Crl. Appeal No. 90 of 2004 (D.B.) , Akhilesh Kumar Pandey for the Appellant. Ma_nish Kumar and Gopal Singh for the Respondent. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by b'R. ARIJIT PASA VAT, J:

1Leave granted.

2Challenge in this a'ppeal is to the order pas'se·d by a Division Bench of the Patna High Court granting bail to' Respondents 2 and 3 who were convicted for offence punishable under secticm 302.of the lndia'nPehal Code, 1860 · (in short the 'IPC') and under Section 27 of the Arms Aet, 1959 (in short the ;Arms Act'). Two other persons namely, Nirmal Singh arid Shiv Jana·m Singh were also convicted in terms of Section 302 read with s'ecti6'n 34 IPC. Four other accused persons were acquitted bythe Trial Court. Respondents2 and 3 filed Criminal Appeal No. 90 of 2004 before the Patna High · BHUVANESHWAR YADAV v. STATE OF BIHA~ANO ORS. [DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.] >·-f- Court in which the present appellant, the informant has also A appeared. Though prayers for bail were earlier made during the pendency of the appeal; they were rejected on 23.3;2004 and 24.8.2006. However, liberty was granted in the latter case to renew the prayer for bail after six months. It was again made on 14.3.2007 which has been allowed by the impugned order. a

3According to the appellant, the impugned order of the High Court shows a total non application of mind. No reason has been indicated as to why the prayer for bail was accepted after same was rejected on two earlier occasions, when there c was no change in circumstances. I

4Learned counsel for the respondent-State supported the stand of the appellant.

5There is no appearance on behalf of Respondents 2 D and 3 in spite of service of notice.

6At this juncture, it would be appropriate to take note of j a decision of this Court in Omar Usman Chamadia v. Abdul and Anr. (JT 2004 (2) SC 176). In para 10, it w~s observed as follows: "However, before concluding, we must advert to another · aspect of this case which has caused some concern to us. In the recent past, we had several occasions to notice that the High Courts by recording the concessions shown by the counsel in the criminal proceedings refrain from assigning any reason even in orders by which it reverses the orders of the lower courts. In our opinion, this is not proper if such orders are appealable, be it on the ground of concession shown by learned counsel appearing for the parties or on the ground that assigning of elaborate reasons might prejudice the future trial before the lower courts.

The High Court should not, unless for very good reasons desist from indicating the grounds on which their orders are based because when the matters are brought up in appeal, the court of appeal has every reason to know 1-"' the basis on which the impugned order hars·been made. It m·ay be that Whil·e concurring with the lower.court's order, · · it may not'·be ·necessary for·the said appellate court to .assign reasons but that is not so while .reversing such . orders of the lower courts; It may be convenient,for the said · court to pass orders without indicating the grounds or basis I but it ce~ainly is nof convenient for the court of appeal while considering the correctness of such impugned orders. the Jt"' reasons need not be ve.ry detailed or elaborate, lest it may r cause prejudice tq the case of the parties, but must be sufficiently indicative of the process of reasoning leading to the passing of the impugned order.

The need for J delivering a reasoned order is a requir:ement of law which has to be complied with in all appealable orders. This Court in a somewhat similar. situation has deprecated the practice of non-speaking orders in the case of State of Punjab and Ors. v. Jagdev Singh Talwandi (AIR 1984 SC 444)".

7These aspects were recently highlighted in V.D. Chaudhary v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Anr. (2005 (7) SCALE 68). . 8 .. Even on a cursory perusal, the High Ccurt's order shows completenon-application of mind. Though detailed examination of the evidence and·. elaborate documentation of the merits of the case is to be avoided by the Court while passing orders on bail applications, yet a court dealing with the bail application should be satisfied as to whether there is a prima facie case, but exhaustive exploration of the merits of the case is not necessary. The court dealing with the application for bail is required to exercise its discretion in a judicious manner and not as a matter of course.

9There is a need 'to indicate in the order, reasons for prima facie concludingwhy bail was being granted particularly l BHUVANESHWAR YADAV v. STATE OF BIHAR AND ORS. [DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.] l'-1 where an accused was charged of having committed a serious offence. It is necessary for the courts dealing with application for bail to consider among other circumstances, the following factors also before granting bail, they are: 1. The nature of accusation and the severity of punishment in case of conviction and the nature of supporting -evidence; 2. Reasonable apprehension of tampering of the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant; 3. Prima facie satisfaction of the Court in support of the charge.

10Any order dehors of such reasons suffers from nonapplication of mind as was noted by this Court, in Ram Govind D Upadhyay v. Sudarshan Singh and Ors. [(2002) 3 SCC 598], Puran etc. v. Rambilas and Anr.' etc. [(2001) 6 SCC 338)] and in Kalyan Chandra Sarkar v. Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav & Anr. [JT 2004 (3) SC 442].

11The position is not different when the application is made during pendency of an appeal after conviction has been recorded. The satisfaction about guilt of the accused has been arrived at while recording conviction.

12The above position was highlighted by this Court in Chaman Lal v. Sate of U.P. and Anr. (JT 2004 (6) SC 540) and Anwari Begum v. Sher Mohd. (2005 (7) SCC 326)

13The order impugned in the present appeal reads as follows: "Heard learned counsel for the appellants, State and the informant. It appears that by order dated 24.8.2006 the prayer for bail of the appellants was rejected with liberty to renew after six months. In view of above, let appellants, Lallu Singh and Dhanu Singh be released on bail during the pendency of the appeal on furnishing bail bond of Rs.10,000/- each with . two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of the trial Court i.e. 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Ara, Bhojpur in S.Tr. No. 32 of 2001 :"

14The High Court noticed that earlier ttie bail was rejected, but liberty was granted to renew the prayer after six C months. That. does not in any way show that there was entitlement for getting the bail. The impugned order of the High Court shows total non application of mind. and is therefore set aside. The appeal is aJlowed. The bail application shall be reconsidered on merits and shall be disposed of by a D reasoned order. If the respondents have been released on bail, they shall surrender to custody forthwith. N.J. Appeal allowed. I I' . t l l : ' i l I I ' I )