High Court
Case Details
Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:139531 Court No. - 65 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 16074 of 2024 Applicant :- Asif Quarashi Opposite Party :- State of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Imtiyaj Ali,Jagadamba Gupta Counsel for Opposite Party :- Chandra Bhushan Tiwari,G.A.,Navin Kumar Tiwari Hon'ble Krishan Pahal,J.
Legal Reasoning
1. List has been revised. Supplementary affidavit filed today by the learned counsel for the applicant is taken on record. 2. Heard Sri Imtiyaj Ali, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Chandra Bhushan Tiwari, learned counsel for the informant as well as Sri R.P. Patel, learned State Law Officer and also perused the material placed on record. 3. Applicant seeks bail in Case Crime No. 65 of 2023, under Sections 498-A, 304-B, 201 of IPC and Sections 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, Police Station - Ahraula, District - Azamgarh, during the pendency of trial. 4. As per prosecution story, the marriage of the applicant was solemnized with the sister of the informant as per Muslim Rites about four-five years before her death. The applicant and other family members are stated to have subjected her to cruelty for a demand of dowry thereby leading her to death on 03.03.2023. 5. Learned counsel for the applicant has argued that the applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case. He has nothing to do with the said offence as alleged in the FIR. The FIR is delayed by about nine days and there is no explanation of the said delay caused. 6. Learned counsel has also stated that the informant and other family members were present at the time of cremation of deceased person but did not care to institute the FIR on that date but the FIR was instituted later on and the dead body was exhumed, as such, the preparation of inquest report and the postmortem of deceased was conducted one month after the incident. The postmortem report indicates that certain parts of the body of the deceased were found burnt but the said burn injuries were sustained during cooking by her. 7. Learned counsel has next contended that the cause of death of deceased could not be ascertained, as such, her viscera was preserved. The viscera report do not indicate presence of any chemical in the dead body. The applicant is languishing in jail since 19.03.2023, having no criminal history to his credit. In case, the applicant is released on bail, he will not misuse the liberty of bail and shall cooperate with trial. 8. Per contra, learned State Law Officer and learned counsel for the informant have vehemently opposed the bail application on the ground that the informant and other family members could reach the place of occurrence only at the time of cremation of the deceased person as her dead body was put in the grave and the sand was put over it. The informant also did the same but later on learnt that deceased was put to death by setting her ablaze, as such, the applicant is not entitled for bail. However, they could not dispute the fact that the applicant has no criminal history. 9. The well-known principle of "Presumption of Innocence Unless Proven Guilty," gives rise to the concept of bail as a rule and imprisonment as an exception. A person's right to life and liberty, guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, cannot be taken away simply because the person is accused of committing an offence until the guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution states that no one's life or personal liberty may be taken away unless the procedure established by law is followed, and the procedure must be just and reasonable. The said principle has been reiterated by the Supreme Court in Satender Kumar Antil Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and another, 2022 (10) SCC 51. Learned State Law Officer could not bring forth any exceptional circumstances which would warrant denial of bail to the applicant. 10. It is a settled principle of law that the object of bail is to secure the attendance of the accused at the trial. No material particulars or circumstances suggestive of the applicant fleeing from justice or thwarting the course of justice or creating other troubles in the shape of repeating offences or intimidating witnesses and the like have been shown by learned State Law Officer. 11. The said viewpoint was shared in AIR 1924 Cal 476 Nagendra Nath Chakrabarthi v. King-Emperor, whereby the High Court held that bail's purpose is to secure the accused's attendance, not to punish. Courts must consider accusation nature, evidence, likely sentence, and accused's character. 12. In Meerut Conspiracy Case, reported in AIR 1931 All 356 – Emperor v. Hutchinson and AIR 1931 All 504 – K. N. Joglekar v. Emperor, this Court held that High Court's bail power under S.498 CrPC is unfettered but must be exercised judicially. Bail is generally the rule; refusal is exception. 13. In Sanjay Chandra Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation, AIR 2012 SC 830, it was reiterated that object of grant of bail to an accused of an offence is neither punitive nor preventive in nature. The true object behind grant of bail is to secure appearance of accused during trial. Refusal of bail and detention of under trial prisoner in jail to an indefinite period violative of Article 21 of the Constitution. The court should keep in view the principle that grant of bail is the rule and committal to jail an exception. Seriousness of the offence is not to be treated as the only consideration in refusing bail. 14. Overcrowding in jails and inordinate delay in disposing of cases often result in undertrial prisoners, who are presumed innocent and incarcerated through no fault of their own, being deprived of their fundamental rights. The failure to ensure a speedy trial despite overcrowding and systemic inefficiencies violates the right to personal liberty under Article 21. Overcrowding further compounds the problem, as jails house far more inmates than their capacity, with the majority being undertrials which leads to the loss of identity and dignity of prisoners. The state and judiciary are constitutionally mandated to ensure that undertrial prisoners are not wrongfully confined for extended periods and that trials are conducted expeditiously to uphold justice and human dignity. These factors make it entirely justifiable to invoke Article 21 protections in such cases. (See: Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons, In re, (2017) 10 SCC 658; State Of Rajasthan Vs. Balchand AIR 1977 SC 2447; and Ashim vs. National Investigation Agency (2022) 1 SCC 695) 15. Reiterating the aforesaid view, the Supreme Court in the case of Manish Sisodia Vs. Directorate of Enforcement, 2024 INSC 595, has again emphasized that the very well-settled principle of law that bail is not to be withheld as a punishment is not to be forgotten. It is high time that the Courts should recognize the principle that "bail is a rule and jail is an exception". 16. The Supreme Court in Jalaluddin Khan Vs. Union of India, (2024) 10 SCC 574, held that 'bail is the rule, jail is the exception' even in special statutes like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. If the conditions in the special statute for the grant of bail are met, then bail should be granted. 17. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, submissions made by learned counsel for the parties, inordinate delay of nine days in lodging the FIR and also considering the fact that the cause of death could not be ascertained although certain parts of the body were found burnt and it is admitted by both the parties that the informant and other family members were present at the time of cremation of deceased person and without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, prima facie, I find it a fit case to release the applicant on bail. The bail application is allowed. 18. Let the applicant- Asif Quarashi, who is involved in aforementioned case crime be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned subject to following conditions. Further, before issuing the release order, the sureties be verified. i) The applicant will not tamper with the evidence during trial. ii) The applicant will not pressurise/intimidate with the prosecution witnesses. iii) The applicant will appear before the trial court on the date fixed. 19. In case of breach of any of the above conditions, it shall be a ground for cancellation of bail. 20. It is made clear that observations made in granting bail to the applicant shall not in any way affect the learned trial Judge in forming his independent opinion based on the testimony of the witnesses. Order Date:- 14.8.2025 Siddhant (Justice Krishan Pahal) Digitally signed by :- SIDDHANT SAHU High Court of Judicature at Allahabad