The court granted custodial bail to the accused, who had no...

The court granted custodial bail to the accused, who had no criminal antecedents, in a case involving illegal mining and revenue loss. The accused filed a petition directly before the High Court, which has concurrent jurisdiction u/s 439 CrPC. The court observed that dismissing the petition solely on the ground of bypassing the Sessions Court would deprive the accused of the statutory right to have the bail petition adjudicated by the Sessions Court first. Considering the duration of judicial custody and the stage of investigation, the court found no justification to continue detention. Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia v State of Punjab, the court held that bail decisions must consider the cumulative effect of various circumstances. Accordingly, the court granted bail subject to fulfillment of certain conditions.