Bail cannot be granted in an ordinary manner for serious offences like murder, and the general impact on society must be considered when deciding on bail applications.

1. Suriya Bibi, who is facing trial in case FIR No.37/2015 for offences under Sections 302/34 RPC has filed the present application for grant of bail on the following grounds:-

(i) that due to ailing condition, the petitioner needs assistance of somebody to do her day to day work, which is not possible in jail;

(ii) that the petitioner being an old lady is suffering from various old age ailments and prior to her arrest in this case, she was on medicine;

(iii) that in terms of Section 497 Cr.P.C., the court has power to grant bail to any person under the age sixteen years or any woman or any sick or infirm person accused of such an offence;

(iv) that the petitioner falls under two categories of above proviso;

(v) that the petitioner had applied for grant of bail on the same grounds, which the trial court has rejected vide order dated 21.04.2018 on the ground that the bail of the petitioner had already been rejected on 06.12.2017 on the similar set of circumstances.

2. The State has filed objections wherein it is stated that the accused has committed serious offence and she is involved in a case for which the punishment of death or life imprisonment is prescribed, therefore, the bail cannot be granted in ordinary manner.

3. I have considered the rival contentions of learned counsel for the parties.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner during course of the arguments has relied upon the judgments of the Supreme Court as well as of this Court in case titled Seema Singh vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and another, reported in 2018 (2) Law Herald (SC) 640; in case titled Gulshan Begum vs. State and others, reported in 2017 (3) JKJ 315; and in case titled Haji Mohd. Jaffer vs. State of J&K, reported in 2014 (1) JKJ 29.

5. Before coming to the conclusion of the present petition, it is necessary to place on record the brief facts of the case which are that; on 18.10.2014 at about 10.00 am, from reliable source an information was received in P/P Sidhara that at IMPA building on the edge of Kacha road, dead body of Shamshad Bibi w/o Rashid Ahmed has been lying. The missing report of this lady had been endorsed in Roznamcha No.9 dated 17.10.2014 in police post Sidhra.

As the matter was pertaining to death of a female, so the cause of death was required to be ascertained. In this regard, the inquiry u/s 174 Cr.P.C. was initiated vide ‘Rapat no.6’ dated 18.10.2014. During inquiry S.I Mohd. Arif visited the spot near IMPA building and prepared site map. The dead body was seized for conducting post-mortem. The photography of site was got conducted. The post mortem was got conducted from Medical Board from GMC Jammu. The clothes of dead body were seized. One mobile phone of Nokia which was given by medical board was also seized. The dead body was given to legal heirs for conducting of last rites after postmortem. The statements of witnesses u/s 175 Cr.P.C. were recorded and viscera of dead body which was obtained from GMC Jammu was sent for medical examination to FSL Jammu. The reports of FSL and postmortem were obtained. The medical board opined that cause of death could not be ascertained due to decomposition of dead body.

During inquiry on 22.02.2015, the real brother of deceased Shamshad Bibi got recorded his statement. He categorically stated that deceased has been murdered by her husband Rashid Ahmed, his brothers Arshad Ahmed, Rafiq Hussain Ss/o Kaki and Mst. Suriya Bibi W/o Kaki. On this statement, on 22.02.2015, In-charge Police Post, Sidhra, Mohd Arif sent a docket to police station, Nagrota consisting of two pages for lodging of FIR. In the docket, it has been written that SI Mohd Arif along-with HC Bal Krishan, Ct. Mushtaq and Ct. Gulzar Ahmed along-with driver had gone to Dagyali with regard to conducting of the inquiry u/S 174 Cr.P.C. of death of Mst. Shamshad Bibi.

On that day, Karamat Ali S/o Babu got recorded his statement u/s 175 Cr.P.C. In the statement, he stated that his real sister Shamshad Bibi was married in 2004 on 2