The judgment establishes that in cases triable by Magistrates, the discretion to grant bail should be exercised liberally, emphasizing the presumption of innocence.

ORDER :

Farjand Ali, J.

1. The jurisdiction of this Court has been invoked by way of filing applications under Section 439 Cr.P.C. at the instance of accused-petitioners. The requisite details of the matter are tabulated herein below:

2. It is contended on behalf of the accused-petitioners that the offences alleged are triable by a Court of magistrate. 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 accused based on conjectures and surmises. Learned counsel for the petitioners further submits that the co-accused Subrato Bhattacharya and Gurmeet Singh have already been enlarged on bail by this Court vide order dated 20.04.2022. He further submits that case of the petitioners is not distinguishable with that of the case of the co-accused Subrato Bhattacharya who has already been enlarged on bail.

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. I have considered the submissions made by both the parties and have perused the material available on record. The offences alleged are triable by a Court of magistrate. This Court has elaborately dealt with the bail jurisprudence pertaining to offences which are triable by a court of Magistrate and has passed a detailed order in Dharmendra vs. State of Rajasthan (S.B. Criminal Miscellaneous Bail Application No.11530/2023) vide order dated 07.10.2023. 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 prescribed in Section 439 that talks about bail jurisprudence/ granting or refusing of a bail plea on any specific ground; it is just recognition of power of the upper Courts.

8. Section 437 CrPC talks about the circumstances when bail can be granted in cases where non-bailable offences are alleged to have been committed. It states that when any person who is accused of or suspected of commission of a non-bailable offence is arrested or detained; is brought before the Court of a Magistrate; or appears before the Court of a Magistrate, such person may be released on bail except in two conditions; the first condition being that if reasonable grounds appear for believing that such person has been guilty of committing an offence which is punishabl