SENDHABHAI MADHAVLAL PATEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application has been preferred under Sec. 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 praying for transit bail in connection with complaint No.19 of 2022 filed before Dindigul DCB Police Station, District Dindigul, Tamilnadu for the offence punishable under Ss. 406 , 420 and 120(B) etc. of the Indian Penal Code .

(2.) As the applicant is apprehending his arrest in connection with the above complaint filed by the complainant, he has prayed for temporary protection.

(3.) At this stage, it needs to be reiterated that the law, with regard to apprehending arrest an application for grant of pre-arrest / anticipatory bail, is by now well settled that a person is entitled to approach Sessions Court or High Court or even Hon'ble Apex Court, as the case may be, praying for grant of appropriate protection from arrest inspite of there being no FIR registered against the such person. The question is that if a person could be protected by a High Court in case of apprehension of his/her being arrested even in absence of FIR, would it be justifiable for the High Court to grant protection to a person who apprehends his/her arrest in a different State and in case no FIR has been registered till the hearing of case in taken up, in the considered opinion of this Court, the question has been answered by a Division Bench of the High Court of Bombay in the judgment of N.K. Nayar and others Vs. State of Maharashtra and others reported in 1985 Cri.L.J. 1887. In the above referred decision the Hon'ble Division Bench of the Bombay High Court was concerned with an application by a person to whom a notice had been issued by the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner of Gujarat State, and whereas the applicant therein had apprehended that qua having committed offence under the Provident Funds Act , he would be arrested upon entering into Gujarat State. The Hon'ble Division Bench had, in the said decision inter alia, noted as thus :