TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (2) TMI 410
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....of criminal jurisprudence is the presumption of innocence, meaning thereby that a person is believed to be innocent until found guilty. However, there are instances in our criminal law where a reverse onus has been placed on an accused with regard to some specific offences but that is another matter and does not detract from the fundamental postulate in respect of other offences. Yet another important facet of our criminal jurisprudence is that the grant of bail is the general rule and putting a person in jail or in a prison or in a correction home (whichever expression one may wish to use) is an exception. Unfortunately, some of these basic principles appear to have been lost sight of with the result that more and more persons are being in....
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....to consider whether the accused is a first-time offender or has been accused of other offences and if so, the nature of such offences and his or her general conduct. The poverty or the deemed indigent status of an accused is also an extremely important factor and even Parliament has taken notice of it by incorporating an Explanation to Section 436 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. An equally soft approach to incarceration has been taken by Parliament by inserting Section 436A in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. 5. To put it shortly, a humane attitude is required to be adopted by a judge, while dealing with an application for remanding a suspect or an accused person to police custody or judicial custody. There are several reas....
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.... as to be incapable of compliance, thereby making the grant of bail illusory. 8. We have been constrained to make these observations in the present appeal, in which the grant of bail has not been opposed by the State, but there is vehement opposition from the complainant. 9. On 13th January, 2016 the complainant lodged a First Information Report (FIR) No.16 of 2016 at Police Station Sahjanawa, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, alleging that the appellant had cheated him of an amount exceeding Rs. 37 lakhs and had therefore committed an offence punishable under Sections 419, 420, 406 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code. It was also alleged that the appellant had issued a cheque for Rs. 18 lakhs in favour of the complainant (returning a part of th....
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.... trial judge and was taken into judicial custody. The appellant has been in judicial custody ever since. 13. A bail application moved by the appellant was rejected by the trial judge on 27th April, 2017 and another application for bail was rejected by the Allahabad High Court on 21st September, 2017 (impugned before us). 14. On 23rd January, 2018 when the appeal was listed before us, the complainant was represented by learned counsel even though he was not a party to the proceedings. However, on the oral request of learned counsel for the appellant the complainant was impleaded as a party respondent. Notice was then issued to the State of Uttar Pradesh, while notice was accepted by learned counsel for the complainant on his behalf. ....
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....e, be dealt with by the trial judge. However, what is important, as far as we are concerned, is that during the entire period of investigations which appear to have been spread over seven months, the appellant was not arrested by the investigating officer. Even when the appellant apprehended that he might be arrested after the charge sheet was filed against him, he was not arrested for a considerable period of time. When he approached the Allahabad High Court for quashing the FIR lodged against him, he was granted two months time to appear before the trial judge. All these facts are an indication that there was no apprehension that the appellant would abscond or would hamper the trial in any manner. That being the case, the trial judge, as ....