Directly approaching the High Court for anticipatory bail under Section 482 of the BNSS without exceptional circumstances is discouraged.

K.BABU, J.

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B.A.No.12050 of 2025 ----------------------------------------

Dated this the 6^th day of November, 2025 O R D E R This is an application seeking anticipatory bail filed under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita , 2023.

2. The petitioner has approached this Court directly for pre-arrest bail, without first approaching the Sessions Court for the said relief. The petitioner has not pleaded any exceptional circumstances that prevented him from approaching the Sessions Court concerned. In Mohammed Rasal C v. State of Kerala [Spl Leave to Appeal (Crl) No.6588/2025], the Hon'ble Apex Court has observed that though concurrent jurisdiction is conferred upon the Sessions Court and the High Court, the hierarchy of Court demands that no person seeking remedy under Section 482 of BNSS should be encouraged to directly approach the High Court. The observation of the Hon'ble Apex Court is extracted below:-

“6. We find that in this case, the petitioners had approached the High Court directly for pre-arrest bail under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita , 2023 (for short, ' BNSS '),, without first approaching the Sessions Court for the said relief. We are of the opinion that though the concurrent jurisdiction is conferred upon the Sessions Court and the High Court to entertain a prayer for pre-arrest bail under of the (formerly, Section 438 CrPC), the hierarchy of Courts demands that no person seeking such remedy should be encouraged or allowed to directly approach the High Court for exercising jurisdiction under of the (formerly, Section 438 CrPC) by bypassing the jurisdiction of the concerned Sessions Court.”

3. In view of the fact that the petitioner has not placed any exceptional circumstances justifying him to directly approach this Court under Section 482 of the BNSS , the bail application stands rejected granting liberty to approach the Sessions Court concerned.