The court emphasized the importance of family events and balanced the petitioner's rights with the necessity of a fair trial, imposing specific conditions for release.

JUDGMENT

Anoop Chitkara, J. -

1. The petitioner incarcerated in the FIR captioned above, has come up before this Court under Section 439 CrPC seeking bail

2. In paragraph 16 of the bail petition, the accused declares that five more cases of NDPS are pending against him.

3. The petitioner is seeking interim bail on the grounds of wedding of his son in which is fixed for 05.01.2023 and wedding festivities are starting from 01.01.2023. Counsel for the petitioner contends that the denial of interim bail would cause an irreversible injustice to the petitioner and family.

4. While opposing the interim bail, the State does not dispute the factum of the wedding of petitioner's son, grounds on which the petitioner is seeking interim bail.

REASONING:

5. A prisoner should not be ordinarily denied the opportunity of attending a significant family event merely because the immediate relatives, in addition to friends and the neighbors, have become accustomed to usually caring for the family members of a person under incarceration and the family is not depend on the prisoner. The prisoner himself not only longs for presence, cooperation, support, and even financial help of the family but is also expected by the near and dears in return for their support towards his family to reciprocate by attending their sacrosanct family functions, despite such attendance carrying the risk of social boycott or dejection.

6. Without commenting on the case's merits, in the facts and circumstances peculiar to this case, and for the reasons mentioned above, the petitioner makes a case for limited period interim bail, subject to the following terms and conditions, which shall be over and above and irrespective of the contents of the form of bail bonds in chapter XXXIII of CrPC, 1973.

7. Given above, provided the petitioner is not required in any other case, the petitioner shall be released on interim bail w.e.f. 27.12.2022 to 09.01.2023 in the FIR captioned above, in the following terms:

(a). Petitioner to furnish personal bond of Rs. Ten thousand (INR 10,000/-); AND

(b) To give one surety of Rs. Twenty-five thousand (INR 25,000/-), to the satisfaction of the concerned court, and in case of non-availability, any nearest Ilaqa Magistrate/duty Magistrate. Before accepting the surety, the concerned court must satisfy that if the accused fails to appear in court, then such surety can produce the accused before the court.

OR

(b) Petitioner to hand over to the concerned court a fixed deposit for Rs. Ten Thousand only (INR 10,000/-), with the clause of automatic renewal of the principal and the interest reverting to the linked account, made in favor of the 'Chief Judicial Magistrate' of the concerned district. Said fixed deposit may be made from any of the banks where the stake of the State is more than 50% or any of the well-established and stable private sector banks. The fixed deposit need not necessarily be made from the petitioner's account.

(c). Such court shall have a lien over the deposit until the case's closure or discharged by substitution, or up to the expiry of the period mentioned under S. 437-A CrPC, 1973, and at that stage, subject to the proceedings under S. 446 CrPC, the entire amount of fixed deposit, less taxes if any, shall be endorsed/returned to the depositor.

(d). It shall be the total discretion of the petitioner to choose between surety bond and fixed deposit. It shall also be open for the petitioner to apply to the Investigator or the concerned court to substitute the fixed deposit with surety bonds and vice-versa.

(e). On the reverse page of personal bond, the petitioner shall mention her/his permanent address along with the phone number, preferably that number which is linked with t