SC Decries the Tactic of Getting Bail by Offering to Deposit Substantial Outstanding Dues and Later Calling It Onerous

The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on the emerging trend of litigants voluntarily offering to deposit substantial sums of money to secure anticipatory or regular bail, only to later challenge those very conditions as "onerous" or claim that their counsel lacked authority to make such commitments before the court.

- PARMOD KUMAR

Expressing concern over this practice of petitioners reneging on their commitment to deposit a substantial amount of dues, a vacation Bench of Justice K.V. Viswanathan and Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh called it an abuse of judicial process that erodes the sanctity of court proceedings.

"We strongly deprecate this practice... We have to be conscious of the sanctity of the judicial process. We cannot allow parties to play tricks and tucks with the court... We cannot permit parties to take advantage of a device resorted by them to secure the orders of release," the bench observed.

The Court noted that this tactic—now becoming "commonplace"—forecloses the High Courts from assessing the bail applications on their merits.