ANU MATHEW Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "..the issue (of bail) is one of liberty, justice, public safety and burden of the public treasury, all of which insist that a developed jurisprudence of bail is integral to a socially sensitized judicial process." - Justice V R Krishna Iyer in G. Narasimhulu v. P.P., [(1978) 1 SCC 240, p. 242, para 1] The afore captioned applications have been instituted under Sec.438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, seeking for grant of anticipatory bail to the applicants concerned, in respect to their involvement as accused persons in the crimes concerned.

(2.) These bail applications have come up for consideration before the Division Bench pursuant to the reference orders made by the Single Benches concerned, as per order dtd. 27/6/2022 in B.A.No.4421/2022 and order dtd. 28/6/2022 in B.A.No.4983/2022, whereby the cases have been referred to the Division Bench in exercise of the powers under the proviso to Sec.3 of the Kerala High Court Act, 1958. The sole issue has been referred for determination in B.A.No.4983/2022 and 3 issues have been referred for determination before the Division Bench in B.A.No.4421/2022. The said 4 issues in referred to the Division Bench for determination are as follows:

(3.) Earlier, with the consent of both sides, we had appointed Sri. Tom Jose Padinjarekkara, learned Advocate [formerly, Addl. Director General of Prosecution and Addl. State Prosecutor of this Court] and Sri. Suman Chakravarthy, learned Advocate [formerly, Senior Government Pleader - cum - Public Prosecutor of this Court] as Amici Curiae in these cases and it was also ordered that Smt. Saipooja, learned Advocate will assist both the Amici Curiae in these cases.