C.K. Abdul Rehim, J.

The petitioner herein is the accused in Crime No.1640/2016 of Kalady Police Station, which was registered for offences punishable under Section 489(B) & (C ) of IPC and Section 15(1)(a)(iii a) and 16 (1)(b) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UA(P) Act for short). The petitioner is approaching this court under Section 439 Cr.P.C seeking bail in the said case. The Registry of this court had posted the above case before this Division Bench, tagged on to some other bail applications, presumably on a mistaken impression that the case is being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA); and that as per the legal position settled in the decision in Majeed Koliyad v. National Investigation Agency, Kochi [2015 (1) KLT 311] it has to be heard by a Division Bench.

2. In fact the case at hand is not one investigated by the NIA, at present. But it is being investigated by the State Police. But, incidentally there arises a question regarding maintainability of the bail application under Section 439 Cr.P.C, in view of the fact that the accusations include offences punishable under the UA(P) Act. Offences punishable under the UA(P) Act are "sc