P.D. JOSEPH Vs. SUSHIL SHARMA, THE INSPECTOR OF POLICE, CANNAUGHT PLACE POLICE STATION, NEW DELHI AND THE COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, EGMORE, MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two Criminal Original Petitions are disposed of together by a common order, since they relate to the same subject -matter. Criminal Original Petition No. 4700 of 1995 is the outcome of suo motu action taken by this Court to satisfy itself as to the correctness, legality and propriety of the order of pre -arrest bail passed in favour of one Sushil Sharma of New Delhi by the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Madras, in Criminal M.P.No.3906 of 1995. Criminal Original Petition No. 4709 of 1995 is an application preferred by the Inspector of Police, Cannaught Place Police Station, New Delhi, invoking the revisional and inherent powers of this Court, to set aside the order passed by the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Madras, aforestated and cancel the anticipatory bail granted in favour of Sushil Sharma', the first respondent in this petition. We issued notice to Mr.Ananthanarayanan, counsel, who appeared for the petitioner before the Principal Sessions Judge, Madras, and Mr.E.Raja, City Public Prosecutor, and both of them were present before us and made their submissions.

(2.) AN episode which shocked the judicial conscience of this Court and led as well to justifiable public lamentation, forms the subject - matter of these two petitions. On 7 -7 -1995, Mr.S.Ananthanarayanan, a member of the Madras Bar, presented an application under Section 438, Cr.P.C. before the Principal Sessions Judge, Madras, pleading for bail in the event of arrest for Sushil Sharma, petitioner in the said petition, whose address in the cause -title indicated a local address in Madras City. To be specific, it is better to extract the address of Sushil Sharma furnished in the cause -title of the petition:

(3.) IT is not as though the learned Principal Sessions Judge was not made aware of the nature of crime for which a non -resident petitioner had chosen to plead for grant of pre -arrest bail. Paragraph 3 of the petition mentions that he has been implicated in a case, where one Naina Sahani had died under suspicious circumstances. That it was a case of murder has been abundantly made clear by the averments made in paragraph 1 of the petition, which reads as hereunder: