Bail orders in serious economic offences may be set aside when relevant materials and gravity are ignored.

Grant of bail may be interfered with where the court below ignores relevant materials, relies on irrelevant considerations, or otherwise acts perversely or without proper application of mind. In a serious economic offence, the gravity of the allegations, the prima facie role of the accused, and the impact on the administration of justice must be assessed alongside custody and investigation status. Here, the bail order was found to have placed undue weight on custody duration and completion of investigation while failing to consider the alleged diversion of large sums through corporate loan structures and the material implicating the accused. The bail order was set aside and bail stood cancelled.

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Issues: Whether the order granting bail was liable to be set aside on the ground that the trial court ignored the gravity of the offence, the prima facie material and the relevant bail considerations.

Analysis: The challenge was to the correctness of the bail order itself, not merely to cancellation on supervening circumstances. The governing test was whether the grant of bail suffered from perversity, illegality, arbitrariness or non-application of mind, with due regard to the seriousness of the alleged offence, the prima facie role of the accused and the impact of the allegations on the administration of justice. The order granting bail was found to have placed undue emphasis on custody duration and completion of investigation while failing to adequately consider the magnitude of the alleged economic offence, the alleged diversion of large sums through corporate loan structures, and the material indicating the accused's role in the transactions.

Conclusion: The bail order was held to be unsustainable and was set aside, with the result that bail granted to the accused stood cancelled.

Ratio Decidendi: An appellate court may interfere with a bail order where the court below ignores relevant materials, applies irrelevant considerations, or otherwise grants bail in a manner that is perverse or unjustified, particularly in a serious economic offence.

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