DURGA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether the High Court or the Court of Session has power to stay the arrest of the accused person while entertaining an application for consideration, for grant of anticipatory bail is the question which has to be answered.

(2.) According to the petitioner, the primary object for introduction of S.438 of the Cr. P.C. 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Code'), vesting power in the High Court and the Court of Session to grant anticipatory bail, was to ensure that a citizen is not arrested and humiliated on false accusations. As such while entertaining an application for anticipatory bail, if an order staying arrest is not passed the whole exercise may end into futility, because in the meantime the accused may be arrested.

(3.) The Law Commission, in its Forty-First Report, said about the need for a provision to grant anticipatory bail in the following words : -