IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established in the judgment is that the right to statutory bail is a fundamental right and cannot be frustrated by unreasonable conditions. The sufficiency of sureties is not dependent on solvency or a money equivalent, and the purpose of bail bonds is to ensure the presence of the accused during trial.

ORDER :

1. Petitioner is an accused in Crime No. 2558/2023 and 2557/2023 of the CBCID, Thiruvananthapuram. He faces indictment in a total of 78 cases for offences under Sections 406, 408, 409 and 420 r/w Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Petitioner was arrested on 18.05.2023 on the allegation that he had cheated various persons as an accountant of a Hospital Co-operative Society and failed to return the deposit on demand.

2. Since the petitioner was arrested on 18.05.2023 and the investigation was not completed, he was granted statutory bail on 14-08- 2023 and 27.09.2023 in the cases mentioned above. However, till date, petitioner has not been released from custody due to his failure to furnish sufficient sureties. In 25 cases the learned Magistrate accepted the sureties offered by the petitioner. But in Crime No. 2558/2023 and 2557/2023, by the impugned order, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram, refused to accept the second surety offered by the petitioner, stating that the value of the property offered by her was not commensurate with the bond required to be executed. On the said basis it was held that the second surety does not inspire the confidence of the court.

3. I have considered the submissions of Sri. Latheesh Sebastian, the learned counsel for the petitioner and Smt. V. Sreeja, the learned Public Prosecutor.

4. In Venugopal vs. State of Kerala, 2024 KHC Online 42, this Court observed that separate sureties need not be insisted when there are several cases registered against an accused. Relying upon the said decision, Petitioner’s wife and his parents-in-law agreed to stand as separate sureties. As mentioned earlier, in 25 cases, they were accepted as sufficient sureties. Property having an extent of 16.20 Ares belonging to his wife, with a market value of Rs. 60,00,000/- (Rupees sixty lakhs only) and another property having an extent of 5.40 Ares with an approximate market value of more than Rs. 12,00,000/- (Rupees twelve lakhs only) belonging to his mother-in-law were pointed out as evidence of solvency of the sureties. Since the same properties were offered in the instant two cases as well, the Magistrate refused to accept the second surety, stating that the value of the property was not sufficient to inspire confidence. The finding of the learned Magistrate is legally untenable for the reasons recorded below.

5. The right to be enlarged on statutory bail under Section 167(2) Cr.P.C. is a fundamental right and not merely a statutory right. The said right flows from Article 21 of the Constitution of India and is an indefeasible part of the right to personal liberty. Neither the prosecution nor even the court cannot frustrate this right of the accused through unreasonable conditions. Reference to the decision in S. Kasi vs. State through the Inspector of Police Samaynallur Police Station Madurai District, (2021) 12 SCC 1 is appropriate in this context. Similarly, in Vishnu Sajanan vs. State of Kerala, 2023 (7) KHC 686, a learned Single Judge of this Court had observed that the right to statutory bail cannot be defeated by imposing conditions that are too stringent and impossible of performance.

6. However, over the years, some practices developed by courts have defeated the orders granting bail or statutory bail based on improper approaches. Insistence on the production of original title deeds of sureties and retaining them with the court, requiring the value of property to be commensurate with the amount involved in the crime, and imposing excessive bond amounts are some of such practices. A time has come to reiterate that these practices are indefensible and legally untenable. Conditions of bail and the amounts fixed for bail bonds cannot become an unjust source of captivity or detention.

7. Bail bonds are executed by sureties undertaking that they will produce the accused in court when called upon. The amount of the bail bond is provided as a measure of the quantum that can be recovere