Default bail under Section 167(2) CrPC is only available before the filing of a chargesheet; once filed, the right to default bail ceases.

ORDER

1. Leave granted.

2. The present appeal arises out of the impugned order dated 12.05.2023 in CRA-D-1115-2022 passed by the High Court of Punjab & Haryana granting default bail to the accused-respondents subject to certain conditions.

3. Brief facts of the instant matter are that a bomb blast had occurred on a motorcycle in Jalalabad (Fazlika) on 15.09.2021, in pursuance of which FIR No. 205 dated 16.09.2021 was lodged under Sections 3, 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, Sections 13, 15, 17, 18, 18-B, 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 [UAPA hereinafter] and Sections 21, 29, 61-85 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 [NDPS Act hereinafter].

4. On 01.11.2021, while the SHO with other officials were present at Kisanpura Chowk, they were informed by a police informer that the accused persons in said offence can be apprehended if the house of one Tarlok Singh is raided. On this account, FIR No. 181 dated 01.11.2021 was lodged under sections 212 and 216 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 [IPC hereinafter] and Sections 18 and 19 of UAPA. In pursuance to the lodging of the said FIR, accused persons were arrested on respective dates – Jaswant Singh @ Shinda Baba and Balwant Singh @ Bant on 01.11.2021, Ranjit Singh @ Gora on 04.11.2021, Manjit Singh @ Mana on 11.11.2021, Sukhwinder Singh @ Sukha on 12.11.2021 and Parveen Singh on 22.03.2022.

5. Thereafter, on 14.02.2022, Respondent No. 4, i.e. Jaswant Singh @ Shinda Baba preferred a default bail application under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [CrPC hereinafter] before the concerned Magistrate which was rejected on the same day on the ground that the Investigating Agency has already been granted an extension of 180 days to file the chargesheet vide order dated 31.01.2022. No appeal was preferred against the order dated 14.02.2022.

6. Subsequently, the chargesheet was filed against all the Respondents herein on 29.04.2022. The case was committed to the Sessions Judge, Ludhiana on 08.07.2022. It is only on 02.09.2022 that all the present Respondents filed a common application seeking default bail under Section 167(2) of CrPC read with Section 43-D of UAPA before the Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana. The said application was dismissed by the Additional Sessions Judge vide order dated 05.09.2022 based on the reasoning that challan has already been presented on 29.04.2022, much before filing of the application under section 167(2) of CrPC for default bail.

7. The Respondents preferred an appeal before the High Court against order dated 05.09.2022 which was allowed by the High Court. The High Court’s rationale while granting default bail was that in the instant case, since the matter pertained to offences under UAPA, only the Designated Special Court alone had valid jurisdiction to assign extensions of time to the concerned Investigating Officer [IO hereinafter] to complete investigation and to file a report under Section 173(2) CrPC. However, since in the instant matter, the order dated 31.01.2022 granting extension of time was passed by Judicial Magistrate First Class, Jagraon [JMFC hereinafter] which was judicially incompetent to do so and hence, the accused persons were in the face of no valid extensions of time being granted to the IO and were entitled to receive the benefit of default bail. Aggrieved by the said relief being granted, the Appellant-State of Punjab has preferred this appeal.

8. Before going into the merits of the case, we would like to reproduce the relevant provisions from CrPC and UAPA respectively–

“167 CrPC. Procedure when investigation cannot be completed in twenty-four hours.—

(2) The Magistrate to whom an accused person is forwarded under this section may, whether he has or has not jurisdiction to try the case, from time to time, authorise the detention of the accused in such custody as such Magistrate thinks fit, for a term not exceeding fifteen days in the whole; and if he has no jurisdiction to try t