The main legal point established is that bail should be the rule and its denial the exception, especially when the principal offence alleged is a bailable one.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Sri Krishna Datta Tiwari, the learned counsel for the applicant, Sri Jitendra Kumar Jaiswal, the learned Additional Government Advocate and perused the record.

2. The instant application has been filed seeking release of the applicant on bail in Case Crime No. 516 of 2017, under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC Section 3/9 of U.P. Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1998, Police Station Belipur, District Gorakhpur during pendency of the trial in the Court below.

3. The aforesaid case has been registered on the basis of an F.I.R. lodged against three named accused persons alleging that during examination for recruitment on the post of Sub Inspector, in place of applicant one Abhisek Ranjan was appearing and it is alleged that the other co-accused Dr. Awdhesh had asked him to appear in place of the applicant and that he had promised that he would get Rs.20,000/-for this job.

4. The applicant had moved an application before the Sessions Judge for his release on bail in the aforesaid case but the learned Additional Sessions (Prevention of Corruption Act), Court No. 5, Gorakhpur has rejected the application by means of an order dated 09-09-2022 on the ground that the applicant has been named in the F.I.R. and from the investigation carried out and the evidence collected by the Investigating Officer, the offence appears to be of a serious nature and there is a possibility that in case the applicant is released on bail, he may tamper with the evidence.

5. In the affidavit filed in support of the bail application filed in this Court, it has been stated that the applicant is innocent and he has been falsely implicated in the present case and that he has no criminal history.

6. The learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that the other co-accused persons Abhisek Ranjan and Dr. Awdhesh Kumar Bharti have been granted bail by means of orders dated 19.02.2018 and 22.05.2018 passed by this Court in Criminal Misc. Bail Application Nos. 5875 of 2018 and 19083 of 2018 respectively.

7. Before proceeding to decide the application for grant of bail, it would be apt to refer to the law regarding consideration of an application of bail with reference to some of the precedents on the point. In Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI, (2021) 10 SCC 773, the Hon'ble Supreme Court was pleased to lay down the following guidelines for considering the bail applications :—

“3…..The guidelines are as under:

Categories/Types of Offences

A) Offences punishable with imprisonment of 7 years or less not falling in category B & D.

B) Offences punishable with death, imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for more than 7 years.

C) Offences punishable under Special Acts containing stringent provisions for bail like NDPS (S.37), PMLA (S.45), UAPA (S.43D(5), Companies Act, 212(6), etc.

D) Economic offences not covered by Special Acts.

REQUISITE CONDITIONS

1) Not arrested during investigation.

2) Cooperated throughout in the investigation including appearing before Investigating Officer whenever called.

(No need to forward such an accused along with the chargesheet (Siddharth v. State of UP, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 615)

CATEGORY A

After filing of chargesheet/complaint taking of cognizance

a) Ordinary summons at the 1st instance/including permitting appearance through Lawyer.

b) If such an accused does not appear despite service of summons, then Bailable Warrant for physical appearance may be issued.

c) NBW on failure to failure to appear despite issuance of Bailable Warrant.

d) NBW may be cancelled or converted into a Bailable War-rant/Summons without insisting physical appearance of accused, if such an application is moved on behalf of the accused before execution of the NBW on an undertaking of the accused to appear physically on the next date/s of hearing.

e) Bail applications of such accused on appearance may be decided w/o the accused being taken in physical custody or by granting interim bail till the bail application is decided.

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8. In the final judg