JUDGMENT

Arijit Pasayat, J. — Leave granted.

2. Challenge in this appeal is to the order passed by a learned Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court cancelling the bail granted to the appellants.

3. Factual background in a nutshell is as under :

On 16.4.2003 appellant No. 1-Bhupinder Singh was married to Smt. Kamaljit Kaur (hereinafter referred to as the ‘deceased’). On 2.8.2004 she was found dead. On the allegation that the appellants had committed murder of the deceased, First Information Report (in short the ‘FIR’) was lodged by the Respondent Jarnail Singh and on that basis appellants 1 and 2 (Bhupinder and Balwinder) were arrested on 5.8.2004. Subsequently on 7.8.2004 appellant No. 3 (Kanwaljit Kaur) was arrested. Prayer for bail was made before learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Batala on 4.11.2004 who refused to grant bail to the appellants. Their stand before the Court in essence was that since challan was not filed in time, they were entitled to bail in terms of Section 167(2)(a)(ii) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the ‘Cr.P.C.’). Learned Magistrate rejected the application stating that the challan was presented in court prior to the completion