The main legal point established in the judgment is the need to consider the accused's criminal history, the nature of allegations, and the possibility of influencing the investigation and intimidating witnesses when granting anticipatory bail.

JUDGMENT

Anoop Chitkara, J.

1. The petitioners apprehending arrest in the FIR captioned above have come up before this Court under Section 438 CrPC seeking anticipatory bail.

2. In paragraph 11 of the bail application, the accused declares that there are no cases against the second petitioner, however, the first petitioner has the following criminal antecedents:

3. The complainant alleged that the Gurmeet Singh, husband of first petitioner and father of the second petitioner hired professional killers to kill him because he had put mud on a land which the accused party claimed to own. The assailants allegedly fired upon the complainant but he was saved.

4. Ld. Counsel for the petitioners contends that the custodial investigation would serve no purpose whatsoever, and the pre-trial incarceration would cause an irreversible injustice to the petitioners and family.

5. While opposing the bail, Ld. counsel representing the State contends that given the criminal past, the accused is likely to indulge in crime once released on bail.

REASONING:

6. In Maulana Mohd Amir Rashadi v. State of U.P., (2012) 3 SCC 382, Hon'ble Supreme Court holds,

[10] It is not in dispute and highlighted that the second respondent is a sitting Member of Parliament facing several criminal cases. It is also not in dispute that most of the cases ended in acquittal for want of proper witnesses or pending trial. As observed by the High Court, merely on the basis of criminal antecedents, the claim of the second respondent cannot be rejected. In other words, it is the duty of the Court to find out the role of the accused in the case in which he has been charged and other circumstances such as possibility of fleeing away from the jurisdiction of the Court etc.

7. In Paramjeet Singh v. State of Punjab, CRM-M 50243 of 2021, this court observed,

While considering each bail petition of the accused with a criminal history, it throws an onerous responsibility upon the Courts to act judiciously with reasonableness because arbitrariness is the antithesis of law. The criminal history must be of cases where the accused was convicted, including the suspended sentences and all pending First Information Reports, wherein the bail petitioner stands arraigned as an accused. In reckoning the number of cases as criminal history, the prosecutions resulting in acquittal or discharge, or when Courts quashed the FIR; the prosecution stands withdrawn, or prosecution filed a closure report; cannot be included. Although crime is to be despised and not the criminal, yet for a recidivist, the contours of a playing field are marshy, and graver the criminal history, slushier the puddles.

8. The petitioners are being roped in because they informed Gurmeet Singh about mud being thrown over their land. On primafacie analysis of the nature of allegations, absence of injuries, and other factors peculiar to this case, there would be no justifiability for custodial or pre-trial incarceration at this stage. Thus, the previous criminal history of the petitioner no. 1 is not being considered strictly at this stage as a factor for denying bail. Furthermore, a prima facie perusal of paragraphs 2 to 5 of the bail petition reveals sufficient grounds for granting bail.

9. In Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia v State of Punjab, 1980 (2) SCC 565, (Para 30), a Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court held that the bail decision must enter the cumulative effect of the variety of circumstances justifying the grant or refusal of bail. In Kalyan Chandra Sarkar v Rajesh Ranjan @ Pappu Yadav, 2005 (2) SCC 42, (Para 18) a three-member Bench of Supreme Court held that the persons accused of non-bailable offences are entitled to bail if t