IMPORTANT POINT
Violation of bail conditions, misuse of liberty, and involvement in criminal activities during the bail period are grounds for cancellation of bail, as per Section 439(2) of Cr.P.C.

ORDER :

This Criminal Miscellaneous Case has been filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (‘Cr.P.C’ for short) by the 1st accused in Crime No.725/2018 of Alakkode Police Station, to quash Annexure-A4 order.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Public Prosecutor in detail. Perused Annexure-A4 order and the decision placed by the learned counsel for the petitioner.

3. The precis of the case is as follows:-The petitioner, who is the accused in Crime No.725/2018 of Alakkode Police Station, was granted bail as per Annexure-A4 order in Crl.M.C.No.1805/2018 dated 05.01.2019 by the Special Court, where the accused is alleged to have committed offence punishable under Section 27(b) of the under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (`NDPS Act’ for short) and Section 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

4. While granting bail, the Special Court imposed certain conditions and condition No.(iv) is that “the petitioner shall not involve in any other crime during the bail period”. Since the petitioner subsequently involved in Crime No.100/2022 of Alakkode Police Station alleging commission of offence punishable under Section 20(b)(ii)(A) of the NDPS Act, prosecution filed a petition to cancel the bail contending that the fourth condition in the bail order dated 05.01.2019 in Crl.M.C.No.1805/2018 was violated.

5. The learned Special Judge addressed the contention raised by the prosecution and the objection raised by the petitioner in this regard. Finally the learned Special Judge found that the petitioner, who had been continuing on bail granted in Crl.M.C.No.1805/2018, again committed offence punishable under Section 20(b)(ii)(A) of the NDPS Act as per Crime No.100/2022 of Alakkode Police Station and thereby the petitioner had violated the fourth condition imposed by the Special Court in the bail order. Accordingly, for the said reason bail granted in Crime No.725/2018 has been cancelled.

6. While impeaching the veracity of the order, the point argued by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that bail granted by the court during crime stage cannot be cancelled after filing final report for violating conditions in the bail order. It is argued that the High Court also cannot cancel the order of bail granted by it, at crime stage, after final report has been filed, and after Sessions Court granted regular bail to the accused, on the ground that the petitioner violated the conditions in the order passed by the High Court. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, this legal position is discussed in the decision reported in [2012 (1) KLT 203], State of Kerala v. Moidheen Kunji. Therefore, it is zealously argued that, Annexure-A4 order passed by the learned Special Judge is illegal and the same deserves interference.

7. Supporting Annexure-A4 order, the learned Public Prosecutor submitted that the decision in Moideen Kunji’s case (supra) is on a different footing and the same was rendered when considering cancellation of bail granted by the High Court when the accused was granted bail by the Sessions Court after filing of the final report.

8. In so far as the legal question as to whether what are the contingencies under which bail can be cancelled the law is well settled. In the decision reported in [2022 (7) KHC 109 : 2022 KHC OnLine 883 : 2022(6) KLT OnLine 1129], Sreeja Mannangath v. State of Kerala, this Court considered the parameters governing cancellation of bail referring the decisions of the Apex Court and observed in paragraphs 8 to 15 as under:

“8. In the latest decision of the Apex Court reported in (2022 KHC 6496: 2022 (2) KLD 49 : 2022 KHC OnLine 6496 : 2022 SCC OnLine SC 552 : 2022 (7) SCALE 411 : AIR 2022 SC 2183), P. v. State of Madhya Pradesh and Another, three bench decision of the Apex Court considered some of the circumstances where bail granted to the accused can be cancelled under S.439(1) of the Cr.P.C.. It has been held as under:

a) If he misuses his libert