Legal Advice on Anticipatory Bail on the Ground that Alleged Offence does not Imply a Prima Facie Guilt | Criminal Law Attorney in Delhi NCR | Criminal Lawyer in Delhi NCR |

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“The establishment of a guilt is a condition precedent to charge or implicate a person in a criminal case as an alleged accused. Further, if a prima facie guilt or prima facie case is not made out by the Police or the Prosecution against the alleged accused then the same is a valid criminal defense or a valid ground for bail in order to obtain anticipatory bail or regular bail. An application for anticipatory bail is filed before the Sessions Court and an appeal is filed before the High Court.”

Allegation of an offence does not imply prima-facie guilt and this can be used as a ground for seeking anticipatory bail. The accused can plead for anticipatory bail if the offence does not show prima-facie guilt.

Grant of Anticipatory Bail on the Ground that Alleged Offence does not Imply a Prima Facie Guilt: Best Criminal Lawyer Advice
There are two types of cases. The first category which shows prima-facie guilt of the accused and the second one in which it is not clear if the alleged offence is committed by the accused or not. In the cases where it is prima-facie that the accused have committed the offence, the Court denies the bail whether it is anticipatory bail or regular bail but in cases where it is not prima-facie shown that the accused is guilty of the alleged offence, the Court considers granting bail to the accused.

In our criminal justice system, it is a principle that the accused should be presumed innocent unless found guilty. The burden of proof is always on the prosecution to prove that the accused is guilty of the alleged offence, till the time the accused is not proved guilty he/she is assumed to be innocent or not guilty. It is only after the conviction the accused should be punished for the alleged offence as prescribed by law. The Court thus, considers granting bail to the accused where the alleged offence does not imply prima-facie guilt of the accused. Hon’ble Supreme Court and High Court in many cases made it clear that while granting anticipatory bail to the accused, the only thing the Court should concern itself with is if the prima-facie guilt is shown or not, the Courts are directed by the hon’ble supreme Court to consider prima-facie guilty and not the in-depth evidence while deciding whether to grant pre-arrest bail to the accused or not in the matter of alleged offence.

In simple words, it can be said that if prima-facie guilt is shown in the alleged offence then the Court would not consider granting bail to the accused but if the guilt of the accused is not prima-facie then the Court would consider granting bail to the accused.

Case Laws
Rahna Jalal V. State of Kerela [(2021)1 SCC 733]- In this case the hon’ble high Court reject the application of anticipatory bail on the ground that the Section 7(c) of Muslim Women Act, 2019 bar the pre-arrest bail or anticipatory bail order and an appeal was brought in by the accused in the Supreme Court. The hon’ble Supreme Court said that the act of dismissing the anticipatory bail by the high Court is not justified. The Supreme Court said excluding access to bail infringed the right of liberty and exclusion of anticipatory bail would not be attracted where the complaint does not show prima-facie case.

Jai Prakash Singh V. State of Bihar [(2012)4 SCC 379]- In this case anticipatory bail was granted to the accused by the hon’ble High Court and by the petitioner an appeal was moved to hon’ble Supreme Court. The Supreme Court cancelled the order of anticipatory bail stating that the provision of anticipatory bail is extraordinary privilege to the accused and shall be exercised in exceptional cases. The Supreme Court said anticipatory bail should be granted when the Court is prima-facie of opinion that the accused is falsely enrolled in the alleged offence.

Anticipatory bail can be sought on the ground that the complaint does not show prima-facie case and the Court consider granting bail to the accused if the Court is prima-facie of the opinion that the accused is falsely dragged in the case
Authored By: Adv. Anant Sharma & Anjali Swami