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Suo Moto Extension Of Limitation Or Lockdown Will Not Affect Right Of Accused To Default Bail : Supreme Court
The Apex Court of the country held that that its order given in a suo moto case which extends limitation and the lockdown restrictions of the government will not affect the right of an accused to seek default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The order was given on 23 March 2020.
The bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, M R Shah and V Ramasubramanian set aside the single judge bench judgment of the Madras High Court in the case of S Kasi v State through the Inspector of Police. The judgment had held that the time to file chargesheet under Section 167(2) CrPC will also get extended on account of the SC order extending limitation and the lockdown restrictions.
The bench declared the single judge’s view as completely erroneous and not in conscience with the law. The court cleared that the order never meant to curtail any provision of CrPC or any other statute enacted to protect the Personal Liberty of a person.
The court said that the reasoning applied by the High Court that the lockdown was similar to declaration of emergency is not correct. Even if it could have been emergency declared under Article 352 still the fundamental right to personal liberty under Article 21 cannot be suspended. Hence the rights of the accused person can’t be taken away.
The court further declared that the suo moto order extending limitation can’t be interpreted to mean extending the limitation period under section 167(2) of Criminal Procedure Code. The rationale given by the court behind this declaration is that the view of High Court could lead to police taking extra liberties even in respect to production of accused after arrest.
Further, the court said that the view taken by the HC judgment sends wrong signals to both the State as well as the prosecution, strengthening them to breach the personal liberty of a person.
