Satender Kumar Antil v Central Bureau of Investigation

• In a miscellaneous application in a pending SLP, the Supreme Court, assisted by the ASG and amicus, examined the large number of undertrial prisoners and the routine arrest and remand of accused persons. It had earlier issued interim guidelines classifying offences into categories A to D for bail after charge sheet.

1. What directions are needed to ensure that arrest and bail law is applied consistently with Article 21.

• Bail is the rule. Offences fall into categories: (A) punishable with 7 years or less, not in B or D; (B) death, life or more than 7 years; (C) special Acts with stringent bail provisions such as NDPS S.37, PMLA S.45, UAPA S.43D(5); (D) economic offences not under special Acts. The Court directed that: the Government may consider a separate Bail Act; investigating agencies must comply with S.41 and S.41A CrPC and Arnesh Kumar, and courts must check compliance, non-compliance entitling the accused to bail; States must issue standing orders on S.41A; Siddharth must be followed; S.436A must be implemented; sureties must be fixed keeping S.440 in mind; bail applications should be decided within two weeks and anticipatory bail applications within six weeks. The application was disposed of.

Unnecessary arrest and delayed bail violate Article 21; statutory safeguards on arrest and bail must be strictly enforced.