Patna High Court’s Bail Condition Requiring the Victim to Stand as Surety of the Accused: “Absurd,’ says Supreme Court

In a recent order, the Supreme Court (SC) of India expressed displeasure over a condition imposed by the Patna High Court (HC) for bail. The HC on July 25, 2023, passed an order to release the accused (petitioner) on bail on the condition that the victim should stand as his surety. The vacation bench of the SC constituting Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said, “It is very unfortunate to note that because of such absurd condition imposed by the High Court, the petitioner although ordered to be released on bail way back in July 2023, yet is still languishing in jail.” 

In this case, the petitioner (accused) prayed for bail before the Patna HC in connection with the FIR registered with Bahera Police Station, Darbhanga, Bihar for the offence punishable under Section 366(A) read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It was noted by the top court that the HC’s order to release the accused on bail ‘but subject to the condition that the surety shall be the victim,’ was unusual. The bench said, “It is the case of the petitioner that it was practically impossible to ask the victim to stand as a surety.” 

The accused preferred an application seeking modification of the condition but the same was rejected by the HC. The matter was, therefore, mentioned before the top court. After hearing the matter, the SC bench termed the condition imposed by the HC as ‘absurd’ and directed to issue notice returnable in 4 weeks. Further, the top court stayed the condition imposed by the HC and ordered to release the accused on bail subject to the terms and conditions that the trial court may deem fit to impose. During the proceedings, Advocate Mukesh Kumar Verma, Advocate Yadunanda Bansal, Advocate Vikas Gupta, Advocate Neeraj Srivastva, and Advocate Vivek Gupta appeared for the accused.