Lalan Singh @ Lalan Prasad vs The State of Bihar

First, why this matter has been listed? Yesterday at the rising of the Court, Mr. Rajendra Prasad Singh, Senior Advocate, President, Lawyers'' Association and Chair- man of the Bihar State Bar Council, drew the attention of the Chief Justice and this Bench to a strange anomaly on the consideration of bail applications, whether anticipatory or regular. The issue of merits pending consideration of any particular bail application is not the subject matter of this order. The Court was intimated yesterday, and it has reiterated in submissions today that bail applications are not being considered by the subordinate judiciary in cases in which an accused has moved an anticipatory bail before the High Court. The accused is told that the anticipatory bail application must be withdrawn first, then the bail application would be considered. This circumstance defeats logic. Only that person will apply for bail who has been taken into custody, and will remain so, until and unless a Court considers orders on the bail application. An anticipatory bail is a pre-emptive move provided by law, where a person is under apprehension that he may be made an accused or is an accused. He has been given access to the appropriate Court to have his request considered whether he should be granted anticipatory bail, whatever the conditions.

Thus, for any Court to tell an accused that he must first withdraw his anticipatory bail application and only then his bail application will be considered is ridiculous. Only a person in custody after arrest would be considered for the grant of a bail. The request that a plea for anticipatory bail be considered then becomes a dead letter. In the circumstances, whenever bail is applied for it must be considered on its own merits. The Court may require information whether anticipatory bail has been applied for in any other Court. The order on the bail application may be sent to the Court whether the anticipatory bail application had been filed.

So ordered. This record is consigned.