Anticipatory bail requires custody or a legal duty to surrender; mere fear of arrest is insufficient.

Bail under the statutory scheme presupposes actual custody or a legal obligation to surrender, so judicial power to grant it arises only when a person is arrested or required to submit to custody. Mere apprehension of arrest does not create jurisdiction for bail, and the wide language used in bail provisions cannot be read to authorise relief in anticipation of an arrest that has not occurred. The concept of bail was treated as involving release from restraint, not a determination of whether the police should first arrest a person. Accordingly, anticipatory bail is not available to a person who is neither arrested nor bound to surrender under an arrest order.

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Issues: Whether bail can be granted to a person who has not been arrested and is not required to surrender to custody, merely because he apprehends arrest.

Analysis: The relevant provisions governing bail contemplate release from actual or threatened custody. The expression "appears" in the bail provisions was construed in its statutory setting as referring to a person who is under arrest or required to surrender under an arrest order, and not to a free who merely comes forward voluntarily. The addition of the words "or suspected of the commission of" and the wide language of the High Court and Sessions Court power were held not to enlarge the statutory scheme so as to authorise bail in anticipation of an arrest that has not yet occurred. The meaning of "bail" itself was treated as presupposing custody or restraint, and a court cannot assume the police function of deciding whether a person should first be arrested.

Conclusion: Anticipatory bail cannot be granted to a person who is not yet arrested and is not required to surrender to custody under any arrest order.

Ratio Decidendi: Under the bail provisions, judicial power to grant bail arises only when the person is in custody or legally bound to surrender to custody; mere apprehension of arrest does not create a jurisdiction to grant anticipatory bail.

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