The right to a speedy trial and personal liberty are fundamental. When a trial is unlikely to conclude in the near future and the accused has undergone significant incarceration, bail should be granted as a rule, as bail is not to be withheld as a form of punishment.

JUDGMENT :

NEERJA K. KALSON , J .

1. The present petition has been filed under Section 483 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanita, 2023 seeking grant of regular bail to the petitioner in case bearing FIR No.85 dated 17.06.2025 (Annexure P-1), under Sections 351(3), 64(1), 69, 77 BNS, 2023 ( Section 77 of , 2023 and Section 67-A of IT Act added later on), registered at Police Station Machhorli, District Jhajjar.

2. The case set up in the FIR in question (as set out in the present petition by the petitioner) is as follows:

“Sir I xxxxx aged about xxx years d/o xxxx and is resident of village xxxx, District xxxxx and make a complaint to you that: 1. That Vinay @ Moni of my village used to talk to me on phone and slowly slowly we started meeting each other and after some days Vinay assured me of marrying me and tried to establish sexual relation with me but I refused before marriage. But Vinay threatened me that if I will not allow him to establish sexual relations with me then he will gather everyone by making a noise and in this manner by compelling me he establish sexual relation with me and without telling me he recorded a video of mine, regarding which I have come to know today. Through this video Vinay has blackmailed me and established sexual relation with me forcibly number of times. The date and time of which I can tell before you. (3). That this Vinay s/o Vilash @ Chand has also made many videos of my videos calls regarding which I have come to know today. Along with this he has also recorded my other private videos without my consent, which have been hidden by him in his e-mail ID. (4). That when I told about this truth to my family and when my brothers tried to make him understand then he said that he will make these videos viral everywhere or otherwise they should send their sister again to him. Hearing this all the persons present there got furious and in order to save himself from his deed, Vinay got registered a false FIR against my brothers. (5) That it is requested to you that after hearing the phone of Vinay all my videos on his E-mail should be deleted. Strict punishment be given to him for establishing sexual relations with me. My father in labourer and I am unmarried and because of Vinay myself and my family has to face humiliation.”

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has been in custody since 10.10.2025 and has thus undergone incarceration for a period of more than five months. It is further submitted that charges have already been framed on 12.02.2026 by the learned trial Court and, though as many as 23 prosecution witnesses have been cited, none of them has been examined till date, thereby indicating that the trial is likely to take considerable time to conclude.

Learned counsel further contends that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present FIR. It is submitted that the petitioner and the complainant/prosecutrix are both aged about 21 years, residents of the same village, and had studied in the same school. They were on friendly terms with each other; however, their association was not approved by the family members of the complainant. It is argued that due to such disapproval, the present case has been engineered to falsely implicate the petitioner and to exert pressure upon him.

It is further submitted that the present FIR is nothing but a counter-blast to an earlier FIR No.83, and has been lodged with an ulterior motive to compel the petitioner to enter into a compromise in the said earlier case. Learned counsel also submits that on 15.06.2025, the petitioner was brutally beaten by the relatives of the complainant/prosecutrix and had to be