Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant : Mr. Gagandeep Singh Simble
For the Respondent: Mr. Pardeep Bajaj, D.A.G., Punjab.

JUDGMENT : 

Kuldeep Tiwari, J. (Oral)

Through the instant petition, the petitioner craves for indulgence of this Court for his being enlarged on regular bail, in case FIR No.323 dated 02.12.2023, under Sections 307/452/148/149 of the IPC, 1860, and, Sections 25/27 of the Arms Act, 1959, registered at P.S. Civil Lines Batala, District Batala.

ALLEGATION(S) AGAINST THE PETITIONER

2. The allegation(s) against the present petitioner, is that, he along with his co-accused intruded into the house of the complainant by scaling wall and thereupon, one of the assailants fired four gunshots towards the complainant, out of which, one of the gunshots hit the leg of the complainant. During the course of investigation, it has transpired that it was co-accused Gagandeep @ Poochi, who had fired the gunshots.

SUBMISSIONS OF LEARNED COUNSEL FOR THE PETITIONER

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner, in his asking for the hereinabove extracted relief, has made the following submissions:-

(i) Petitioner has been inadvertently nominated as accused in the present FIR, as is clear from the compromise (Annexure P-2), which is entered inter se the petitioner and the respondent No.2/complainant.

(ii) Nonetheless, neither any specific role has been attributed to the petitioner in the present FIR, nor any specific injury has been attributed therein to him;

(iii) Petitioner's co-accused, namely, Ramesh Kumar @ Meshi has been granted the concession of ad-interim bail by this Court, vide order dated 27.02.2024, passed in CRM-M-93802024;

(iv) Petitioner has undergone incarceration of approx. 3^1/2 months, and, he is not involved in any other criminal case;

(v) Investigation stands completed, whereupon, Final Report has also been presented on 01.03.2024;

(vi) the trial is not likely to conclude anytime soon, as charges have not yet been framed, therefore, keeping the petitioner behind the bars would serve no gainful purpose;

SUBMISSIONS OF THE LEARNED STATE COUNSEL

4. Per contra, the learned State counsel though has opposed the grant of regular bail to the petitioner, however, on instructions imparted to him by the official concerned, he has not disputed the factum that the Final Report has already been presented on 01.03.2024 and charges are yet to be framed.

ANALYSIS

5. "Bail is the Rule and Jail is an Exception". This basic principle of criminal jurisprudence was laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, way back in 1978, in its landmark judgment titled "State of Rajasthan V. Balchand alias Baliay", 1977 AIR 2447, 1978 SCR (1) 535. This principle finds its roots in one of the most distinguished fundamental rights, as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Though the underlying objective behind detention of a person is to ensure easy availability of an accused for trial, without any inconvenience, however, in case the presence of an accused can be secured otherwise, then detention is not compulsory.

6. The right to a speedy trial is one of the rights of a detained person. However, while deciding application for regular bail, the Courts shall also take into consideration the fundamental precept of criminal jurisprudence, which is "the presumption of innocence", besides the gravity of offence(s) involved.

7. In "Nikesh Tarachand Shah V. Union of India", (2018) 11 SCC 1, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has recorded the following:-

"14. In Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia v. State of Punjab, (1980) 2 SCC 565 at 586-588, the purpose of granting bail is set out with great felicity as follows:-

"27. It is not necessary to refer to decisions which deal with the right to ordinary bail because that right does not furnish an exact parallel to the right to anticipatory bail. It is, however, interesting that as long back as in 1924 it was held by the High Court of Calcutta in Nagendra v. King-Emperor [AIR 1924 Cal 476, 479, 480 : 25 Cri LJ 732] that the object of bail is to secure the attendance of the accused at the trial, that the proper test to be applied in the solution of the question w