Under special circumstances one can directly approach HC for anticipatory bail Allahabad HC

    Allahabad, Mar 3 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has ruled that under special circumstances, a person apprehending arrest can move a high court directly seeking anticipatory bail without approaching a sessions court first.
    A five-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday ruled that it is not mandatory that while filling an anticipatory bail under Section 438 of CrPC, an applicant must approach the sessions court first and on rejection of the plea move to the high court.
    The bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and justices Ramesh Sinha, Sunita Agarwal, Yashwant Verma and Rahul Chaturvedi observed, "Section 438 CrPC on its plain terms does not mandate or require a party to first approach the sessions court before applying to the high court for grant of anticipatory bail."
    The matter came before the bench after reference by a single judge of the court in a case related to a plea of a man named Vinod Kumar.
    The single judge had referred the matter to the larger bench asking, "Whether the Court would have no jurisdiction to reject the anticipatory bail after considering the grounds of compelling reasons mentioned in the affidavit being found not appealing, which would
amount nothing but to approach this Court directly."
    The larger bench was of the view, "We would consequently answer the reference by holding that the decision in Vinod Kumar does not merit any reconsideration or explanation. As rightly held in that decision, there can be no exhaustive or general exposition of circumstances in which an applicant may be held entitled to approach the high court directly."
    The bench further said that the special circumstances must be left for the consideration of the judge before whom the petition is placed and a decision thereon taken bearing in mind the facts and
circumstances of that particular cause.
    "However, special circumstances must necessarily exist and be established as such before the jurisdiction of the high court is invoked," it said. PTI COR RAJ ZMN

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)