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“Court has inherent power to grant interim bail”

J. Venkatesan

To protect life and liberty and reputation: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: A court hearing a regular bail application has the inherent power to grant interim bail, pending its disposal, to protect the life and liberty and reputation of the individual concerned, the Supreme Court has ruled.

A vacation Bench consisting of Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma said: “When a person applies for regular bail, the court concerned ordinarily lists that application after a few days so that it can look into the case diary which has to be obtained from the police, and in the meantime the applicant has to go to jail. Even if the applicant is released on bail thereafter, his reputation may be tarnished irreparably in society. The reputation of a person is his valuable asset and is a facet of his right under Article 21.”

Discretion of court

Quoting an earlier judgment, the Bench said: “We are of the opinion that in the power to grant bail, there is inherent power in the court concerned to grant interim bail to a person pending final disposal of the application. Of course, it is the discretion of the court concerned to grant interim bail or not, but the power is certainly there.”

In the instant case, Sukhwant Singh and others challenged the order of a single judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing their application for anticipatory bail.

The Bench said: “We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order. If the petitioners surrender before the court concerned and make a prayer for interim bail, pending disposal of the bail application, the same shall be considered and decided the same day.”

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