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Court was earlier told that central probe agencies were under a lot of difficulties due to the judgment in Chhabaria.
A special bench of the Supreme Court has ordered today that trial courts and high courts across the country, while considering an application for the grant of default bail under section 167(2) of Criminal Procedure Code, shall decide the same independent of and without relying on the judgment of Ritu Chhabria vs. Union Of India & Ors.
This observation was made by a CJI DY Chandrachud led bench, while hearing an application of the Central Government seeking a recall of the judgment in Chhabaria which held that an investigating agency cannot file a charge sheet in court without completing a probe to deprive default bail to an accused.
Notably, on May 1, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta had informed the top court that central probe agencies were under a lot of difficulties due to the said judgment.
Court had then ordered that the judgment shall stand deferred.
When the Centre's plea was taken up today, Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra appearing for an intervening party told court that his clients were affected by the court's decision of staying the impugned judgement.
To this the SG said, "Milord, I may have a problem with persons intervening, but My Luthra can assist."
Accordingly, the bench also comprising Justices Narasimha and Pardiwala said, "So what we can order, is that during pendency, the interim order dated May 1 shall not stop any court from considering an application for the grant of default bail under section 167(2) of CrPC, independent of and without relying on the Ritu Chhabaria judgment."
The court thus ordered to place the review petition, which would be filed by the Union of India as informed by SG Mehta, after the vacations.
Earlier this month, while mentioning the Union's plea, SG Mehta had argued that the impugned judgment passed by a bench of Justices Krishna Murari and CT Ravikumar had laid down an absolute proposition.
In the Chhabria judgment, the top court had said the right of default bail under Section 167(2) of the CrPC is not merely a statutory right, but a fundamental right that flows from Article 21 of the Constitution.
The top court said it becomes essential to place certain checks and balances upon the investigation agency in order to prevent the harassment of accused persons at their hands.
Case Title: Directorate of Enforcement vs. Manpreet Singh Talwar
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