Supreme Court: In an appeal against the orders passed by the Allahabad High Court, wherein the Court has released one of the accused on bail, the division bench of *M.R. Shah and C.T. Ravikumar, J.J,set aside the impugned order as nature of allegations , seriousness and gravity of the offences have not been considered by the High Court, also no cogent reasons have been assigned while releasing the respective accused on bail.In the matter at hand, the accused persons formed an unlawful assembly and ran over the tractor on the standing crops trying to take possession of the land, thereafter, killed the complainant’s brother and seriously injured other persons. The High Court released the one accused on bail when the other accused persons are facing trial under Sections 147, 148, 307, 302 and other offences of Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’), which in the nature are very serious offences.
The Court said that the High Court had not at all appreciated the facts and had not given any independent reasons while releasing the respective accused on bail, except narrating the submissions made on behalf of the accused and the State. The Court noted that one of the reasons for overcrowding of jails given by the High Court in the impugned order cannot be considered for releasing on bail in the offences of such serious nature.
The Bench said that allthe three accused were part of the unlawful assembly, and independent overt acts cannot be a ground to release the accused on bail, once they are found to be part of the unlawful assembly.
The Court further said that asthe nature of allegations and the seriousness and gravity of the offences have not at all been considered and no cogent reasons have been assigned by the High Court while releasing the accused on bail, thus, the impugned orders releasing the accused on bail are unsuitable and deserves to be quashed and set aside.
[Yashpal Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 347, decided on 28-03-2023]
*Judgment authored by: Justice M.R. Shah
