PUBLIC PROSECUTOR Vs. MSANYASAYYA NAIDU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case five persons were charged with the attempted murder of the Sub- Collector. The accused applied for bail and ultimately bail was granted, on the information then before him, by my learned brother in this Court. It was first argued that under the Code there was no power inherent in this Court to revise any such grant of bail. I have never been able to see the difficulty. Section 497(1) of the Criminal P. C. runs as follows: When any person accused of any non-bailable offence is arrested or detained without warrant by an officer in charge of a police station, or appears or is brought, before a Court, he may be released on bail.

(2.) That is what happened here. By Sub-sectioon 5 of that section, the Court therein described "may cause any person, who has been released under this section, to be arrested and may commit him to custody." In the face of that, the argument that there is no power in this Court, whatever change of circumstances may be proved before it, to revise the order granting bail seems to be absolutely untenable. I hold that we have ample jurisdiction to exercise our discretion and order the re-arrest of any person out on bail, if we feel the circumstances warrant or demand such a course.

(3.) In this case, we are concerned with 3 men; one is the 5 accused, about whom most of the argument has been addressed to us. He is a retired Inspector of Police and he is alleged to have taken part in this very serious offence of attempted murder. The third accused is his son-in-law, also a man in an important position, which he has forfeited; he was in the position of Village Munsif. The 2nd accused is the son of the 5 and, in the absence of anything brought to our notice, we think that on the security which has been ordered, he may be allowed to be at liberty till the trial.