NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that an accused cannot be released on bail as a matter of right even though he was not arrested during the investigation.The observation came while the court interpreted Section 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to elucidate whether it is obligatory for a court to release the accused by accepting the bond under Section 88 on the ground that he was not arrested during investigation.
Section 88 holds that when any person for whose appearance or arrest the judge is empowered to issue a summons or warrant, is present in court, the judge may require the person to execute a bond, with or without sureties, for his appearance in the court.A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan maintained that the word ‘may’ did not cast a duty upon the judicial officer to release the accused on bail after accepting the bond, but the term ‘may’ in fact give a discretion to the judge to decide for or against the release.
The order came as it upheld orders by a CBI judge and the Allahabad High Court in dismissing the bail application of Pankaj Jain, partner in a construction firm who is a co-accused in a corruption case involving former Chief Engineer of Noida, Yadav Singh. The former chief engineer was found guilty of amassing assets that were disproportionate to his known sources of income.