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1.
Principles governing grant of bail.-- It must be understood that for every bailable offence bail is a right, not a favour. In demanding bail from an accused person, Magistrates should bear in mind the social status of the accused and fix the amount of bail accordingly, care being taken that the amount so fixed is not excessive. The amount of bail and the offence charged, with the section under which it is punishable, should always be stated on the face of an order directing the accused to be detained in the lock-up in default of his furnishing bail. Bail may be tendered and must be accepted at any time before conviction.
Bail may also be tendered and accepted even after conviction in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2-A) of Section 426 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, when a person sentenced to imprisonment for a bailable offence satisfies the court that he intends to file an appeal.
2. Recognizance.-- When any person other than a person accused of a non-bailable offence is brought before a Criminal Court, the Court may, if it thinks fit, instead of taking bail discharge him on his executing a bond without sureties for his appearance (section 496, Criminal Procedure Code).
3. Bail in non-bailable cases.-- Even in the case of non-bailable offences there are circumstances under which the accused may be admitted to bail. These are described in section 497 of the Code.
4. Cash or Government promissory notes may be accepted in lieu of bail.-- Under section 513 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a deposit of cash or Government promissory notes may be made in lieu of bail, except in the case of a bond for good behaviour.
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[5. Bail to be granted promptly.-- It is unlawful to detain parties under trial in prison a minute longer than the law requires; if innocent, they are exposed to the indignity of imprisonment, for which no subsequent order of discharge or acquittal can atone.]
6. Release on bail by superior Courts.-- Under Section 498 of the Code, the Sessions Judge may, whether there be an appeal on conviction or not, direct that any accused person be admitted to bail, or that the bail required by a police officer or Magistrate be reduced. ***[...] It should also be remembered that, under section 426 of the Code of Criminal Procedure an Appellate Court may, for reasons to be recorded in writing , order that the convicted person be released on bail or on his own bond.
7. Bail applications on holidays.-- Sessions Judges should allow urgent applications for bail to be presented to them at their residence on holidays at a fixed hour, when such applications cannot be presented in Court on a working day owing to unavoidable circumstances.
8. Disposal of bail applications in the absence of Sessions Judge.-- When Sessions Judges are unavoidably absent from the station, they should take action under section 17(4) *[of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898] for the hearing of urgent bail applications.
9. Inquiry about sufficiency of bonds.-- Considerable diversity of practice exists in carrying out the provisions of the law in regard to the taking of bonds from accused persons and their sureties, and the result of the diversity is not only to cause Police officers to be employed in needless inquiries, but also to keep the accused person in custody pending the result of the inquiry into the sufficiency or otherwise of the bail offered. The attention of the criminal authorities, is, therefore, directed to section 499 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires the Magistrate simply to take a bond for such a sum of money as he may think sufficient, from the accused and one or more sureties. At the same time, however, it is the duty of Magistrates to satisfy themselves that the sureties are, in point of substance, persons of whom it may reasonably be presumed that they can, if necessary , satisfy the terms of the bail-bond.
10. Forfeiture of bail bonds.-- Section 514 of the Code lays down the procedure to be adopted to compel payment of the penalty mentioned in the bond from the person executing the personal recognizance and from his sureties.
11. Form of bond for appearance before High Court.-- When a person is enlarged on bail by order of the High Court, or when bail is to be taken for his appearance before the High Court, the bonds to be executed by such person and his sureties shall be in the following forms which have been prescribed by the High Court with the sanction of the Provincial Government under powers conferred by section 544 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure:-
FORM OF BOND AND BAIL BOND
I, __________________ son of________________Caste____________
appealed resident of_______________ having __________________ to the Lahore High
petitioned Court, Lahore and being required to give security for my attendance before the Lahore High Court, Lahore or for my surrender before the Court of the District Magistrate of________________ if required, do bind myself to attend at the Lahore High Court, Lahore on every day of the hearing of my appeal/petition by the Lahore High Court, Lahore and on such other day or days as I may be ordered to attend, or, to appear and surrender myself before the District Magistrate of___________ and in case of making default therein, I bind myself to forfeit to the *[Governor of Punjab] the sum of rupees____________.
Dated this ______________day of ________________19 .
SURETY BOND
WHEREAS _____________son of________________ caste______________ resident of___________having appealed/petitioned to the Lahore High Court, Lahore is being required to give security for his attendance before the Lahore High Court, Lahore or for his surrender before the Court of the District Magistrate of ___________if required, I, _____________son of______________ resident of _____________do bind myself to produce at the Lahore High Court, Lahore on every day of hearing of his appeal ----------------by the Lahore High Court, Lahore and on such other day or days as I may petition be ordered to produce him, or to produce and surrender him before the District Magistrate of ____________and in the case of my making default therein, I bind myself to forfeit to the *[Governor of Punjab] the sum of rupees______________.
Dated this ______________day of ________________19 .
12. Date of hearing to be communicated to the accused and sureties.-- In cases punishable with death or *[imprisonment] for life the District Magistrate on accepting the sureties shall inform them that the person released on bail must be present at the hearing in the High Court. He shall also inform the person released on bail to the same effect.
In other cases the person released on bail shall be produced before the District Magistrate by the sureties and/or shall surrender himself before the District Magistrate if and when required. The sureties and the person released on bail shall be informed by the District Magistrate accordingly.
13. Discretion of High Court.-- On the date of hearing in the High Court, the Judge or Judges hearing the appeal may order that-
(a) the bail-bond should be cancelled at once, and the man re-arrested, or
(b) he should appear on a certain day to hear judgment pronounced, or
(c) he should attend daily (excluding holidays) until judgment is pronounced, or
(d) he should be discharged from his bail-bond.
(e) he should appear and surrender himself before the District Magistrate, or
14. Re-arrest on cancellation of bond.-- If the person who has been released on bail is not arrested on the day of hearing, in accordance with *[the immediately preceding paragraph], he will ordinarily be re-arrested in the High Court immediately **[after the] judgment has been pronounced against him.
Note 1:- The foregoing instructions will apply mutatis mutandis to the case of persons enlarged on bail by a Court of Session.
Note 2:- Except in very special cases, the Judges of the High Court decline to entertain applications for bail unless the Sessions Judge or the Court trying the case has already been applied to and has rejected applications. Sessions Judge should conform to this practice.
15. Bail application to be treated as urgent.-- All applications for bail in criminal cases including appeals *[shall be] treated as urgent.
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