1One Rajan Pillai, styling himself as "a fugitive criminal", appeared in the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram on 8-4-1995 and sought for bail. Learned magistrate released him on "interim bail" on certain conditions and proceeded to report to the Central Government of the surrender of that person (who would hereinafter be referred to as the petitioner). A learned Judge of this court, while holding sittings during mid-summer vacation, came to know of the order and called for the records of the case immediately for examining the records. Later the records were examined by another learned Judge who was holding sittings during the latter half of the mid-summer vacation. Learned Judge, after expressing his own tentative opinion, referred the questions involved in the case to be considered by a larger Bench. This is how we are called upon to deal with the matter.

2We heard Shri M. Retna Singh, learned Public Prosecutor (who is also the Director General of Prosecutions in Kerala), Shri M.N. Sukumaran Nayar, Senior Counsel who argued for the petitioner and Shri A.K. Dutt, who argued for the Central Bureau of Investigation.

3Petitioner is a citizen of India. He