ANEESH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A learned Single Judge of this Court formulated the following question of law and referred the matter to a Division Bench.

(2.) In the Reference Order, the learned Single Judge referred to two decisions of another learned Single Judge (Varada Nadarajan v. State of Kerala, 2013 4 KHC 22 and Jamsheer, A.V. and another v. State of Kerala, 2013 3 ILR(Ker) 790) and expressed the view that those decisions require re-consideration. In the present case, the petitioner filed an application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, before the High Court and the said Bail Application was sought to be withdrawn. Accordingly, that Bail Application was dismissed as withdrawn on 12-7-2013. Thereafter, the petitioner filed the present Bail Application on 30-7-2013 under Section 438 of Crl. P.C. A copy of the order dated 12th July, 2013 was produced as Annexure A along with the second Bail Application.

(3.) In Jamsheer, A.V. and another v. State of Kerala, 2013 3 ILR(Ker) 790, the petitioner therein moved an application under Section 438 of Crl. P.C. and that application was withdrawn. Later, he filed another Bail Application under Section 438 of Crl. P.C. It was opposed on the ground that dismissal of the earlier Bail Application would be a bar to the maintainability of the second application. It was contended by the petitioner therein that he withdrew the earlier application since the proceedings against him were dropped by the police at that time. This contention was found to be untrue by the learned Single Judge while disposing of the second Bail Application. It was held thus: