Default bail does not revive after a timely complaint is filed, even if further investigation or expert reports remain pending.

Default bail is a statutory right that arises only when the charge-sheet or complaint is not filed within the prescribed period. If the prosecution complaint is filed in time, the right to default bail ceases and is not revived merely because further investigation continues under Section 173(8) CrPC, an FSL report is still awaited, or summons are later issued to another person. Pending expert reports do not by themselves make the complaint incomplete where the relevant material has already been sent for examination. On that reasoning, the Delhi High Court rejected the challenge to the refusal of default bail.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to default bail despite the filing of the prosecution complaint within the prescribed period, on the grounds that the FSL report had not yet been received and further steps such as summons to another person were issued after filing of the complaint.

Analysis: The right to default bail is a statutory right that arises only when the charge-sheet or complaint is not filed within the prescribed period. Once a complaint is filed in time, the right ceases, and it is not revived merely because further investigation continues under Section 173(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 or because some documents remain to be received from an expert agency. The pendency of an FSL report, when the relevant material has already been sent for examination, does not render the complaint incomplete. Likewise, the issuance of summons to another person or the possibility of additional evidence does not by itself show that the investigation against the petitioner remains incomplete so as to trigger default bail.

Conclusion: The petitioner was not entitled to default bail and the challenge to the dismissal of the bail application failed.

Final Conclusion: The petition was rejected because the prosecution complaint had been filed within time and the pendency of further investigation did not revive the statutory right to default bail.

Ratio Decidendi: Once a charge-sheet or complaint is filed within the statutory period, the accused cannot claim default bail merely because further investigation continues or some documents are awaited, provided the filing otherwise satisfies the requirements of the Code.

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