IMPORTANT POINT
In cases involving offences triable by a Magistrate, the court should adopt a liberal approach towards granting bail, particularly when the accused has been in custody for an extended period without trial, and the investigation is complete.

ORDER :

FARJAND ALI, J.

1. The jurisdiction of this court has been invoked by way of filing these bail applications under Section 439 CrPC at the instance of accused-petitioner. The requisite details of the matter are tabulated herein below:

2. It is contended on behalf of the accused-petitioners that no case for the alleged offences is made out against them and their incarceration is not warranted. There are no factors at play in the case at hand that may work against grant of bail to the accused-petitioners and they have been made an accused based on conjectures and surmises.

3. Contrary to the submissions of learned counsel for the petitioners, learned Public Prosecutor opposes the bail application and submits that the present case is not fit for enlargement of accused on bail.

4. Heard and considered the submissions made by both the parties and have perused the material available on record.

5. The petitioners are behind the bars since more than six months. The case is triable by Magistrate in which, after investigation, charge sheet has been filed against them. The principal accused Tushar has also been apprehended now and thus, the judicial proceeding would take a long time to come to an end.

6. It is revealing that for the purpose of providing assistance and welfare to the poor persons, the State Government brought a project named RGHS so as to give them relief in medical expenses. The petitioners have committed an offence of preparing false documents and misappropriation of amount thereby causing huge loss to the public exchequer. No doubt, it has been fully planned and well conspired crime. The involvement of the petitioners in commission of the crime is also reflecting from the charge sheet, however, the fact cannot be ignored that the alleged offences are exclusively triable by Court of Magistrate and they are behind the bars since September 2023. Even the charge sheet had been submitted in this case vide charge sheet No.1 dated 22.12.2023 and during the pendency of the entire trial, keeping the petitioners behind the bars would not be justifiable.

7. Dealing with an identical issue in which offence are exclusively triable by the Court of Magistrate, this Court vide order dated 07.10.2023, has made an elaborate discussion in the matter of Dharmendra Vs. State of Rajasthan passed in S.B. Criminal Misc. Bail Application No.11484/2023. The relevant part is being reproduced herein below:-

“6. It is noticed that all the offences alleged against the petitioner as contained in the charge-sheet are triable by a Court of Magistrate. It is run of the mill for High Courts as well as Hon’ble the Apex Court to grant bail in cases concerning offences that are triable by Magistrate. It is deemed imperative by this Court to enunciate and elaborate upon the theory and reasoning owing to which it is justifiable to grant bail under Section 439 of CrPC in matters involving commission of offences triable by Magistrate.

7. The jurisprudence begins right from Section 437 of the Code which is the sole provision in the entirety of criminal statutory literature that provides for grant of bail as Section 439 of CrPC merely preserves and recognizes the special powers of the Session Courts and High Courts to grant bail which leads to the logical inference that the discretion vested in the Magistrates is exclusive. Moreover, there is nothing presc