Bail and Bonds Sections 478 to 496

Sections 484 and 486, BNSS 2023

Section 484(1). The amount of every bond executed under this Chapter shall be fixed with due regard to the circumstances of the case and shall not be excessive.

Section 484(2). The High Court or the Court of Session may direct that the bail required by a police officer or Magistrate be reduced.

Section 486. Every person standing as a surety to an accused person for his release on bail shall make a declaration before the Court as to the number of persons to whom he has stood surety, including the accused, giving therein all the relevant particulars.

📖 Moti Ram v. State of Madhya Pradesh, (1978) 4 SCC 47

Facts: A convict whose appeal was pending was granted bail, and the Magistrate to whom the matter went for implementation fixed a large sum and rejected the surety offered on the ground that he was from another district. The Supreme Court examined the meaning of “bail” and the practice of insisting on monetary sureties.

Held: The Supreme Court held that the expression “bail” in the criminal procedure statute is of wide import and includes release on a personal bond without sureties: the Code nowhere defines bail as necessarily requiring a monetary security, and a court is not obliged to insist on one. The Court held that fixing a heavy amount or demanding local sureties operates to keep in prison only those who are poor, so that the effect of the practice is a discrimination against indigence which is difficult to reconcile with Articles 14 and 21. It directed that the amount be fixed with regard to the circumstances of the particular accused — his means, his ties to the community, the nature of the offence — and not by a mechanical figure; that a surety from another district should not be rejected on that ground alone, such a practice being parochial and unrelated to the surety’s sufficiency; and that in appropriate cases the accused should be released on his own bond.

Ratio: Bail includes release on a personal bond without sureties. Fixing an excessive amount or insisting on local sureties keeps only the poor in prison, and the amount must be fixed with regard to the circumstances of the particular accused.

📖 Dolat Ram v. State of Haryana, (1995) 1 SCC 349

Facts: Bail granted to the accused was cancelled on grounds which went to the merits of the prosecution case, and the question before the Supreme Court was whether the considerations governing the cancellation of bail already granted are the same as those governing its refusal in the first place.

Held: The Supreme Court held that rejection of bail in a non-bailable case at the initial stage and the cancellation of bail already granted stand on different footings and involve very different considerations. The former is a decision whether to grant liberty; the latter is a decision to take away liberty already conferred, and calls for cogent and overwhelming circumstances. The Court held that bail once granted may be cancelled where the accused interferes with the course of justice — by tampering with evidence, threatening or influencing witnesses, or attempting to flee — where he abuses the concession granted to him, where there is a likelihood of his committing the same offence, or where his presence cannot otherwise be secured. But bail is not to be cancelled in a mechanical manner, and above all it is not to be cancelled merely on a reappraisal of the merits: an order granting bail which is thought to be erroneous may be challenged, but the fact that another view of the material is possible is not itself a ground for cancellation.

Ratio: Rejection of bail and cancellation of bail already granted stand on different footings. Cancellation requires cogent and overwhelming circumstances — typically interference with the course of justice or abuse of the concession — and is not ordered on a mere reappraisal of the merits.

⚠ Cancellation and rejection distinguished

Rejection decides whether liberty shall be granted. The Court weighs the material, the gravity of the offence, the likelihood of the accused absconding or interfering, and the other factors.

Cancellation takes away liberty already conferred, and the threshold is correspondingly higher. It calls for cogent and overwhelming circumstances, and the usual grounds concern what the accused has done since his release — tampering, threatening witnesses, absconding, repeating the offence, or otherwise abusing the concession.

A mere reappraisal of the merits is not a ground. That an appellate court would have refused bail is not a reason to cancel it; the remedy against an order thought to be perverse or granted without application of mind is a challenge to that order, which is a different exercise.

Section 483(2) confers the power on the High Court and the Court of Session to direct that any person released on bail in a non-bailable case be arrested and committed to custody.

The position stated shortly

1. Chapter XXXV has two halves: sections 478 to 483 on whether a person is released, and sections 484 to 496 on the bond and surety machinery.

2. Section 484: the amount of every bond shall be fixed with due regard to the circumstances and shall not be excessive; the High Court or Court of Session may direct a reduction.

3. Bail includes release on a personal bond without sureties. Fixing an excessive amount or insisting on local sureties keeps only the poor in prison: Moti Ram.

4. Section 485: the bond is conditioned that the person shall attend at the time and place mentioned and continue so to attend.

5. Section 486: every surety must declare the number of persons to whom he has stood surety, so that a professional surety cannot stand for an unlimited number.

6. Section 488: where sureties are insufficient or become so, the Court may issue a warrant and order the person to find sufficient sureties. Section 489: a surety may at any time apply to be discharged.

7. Section 490 permits a deposit of money or Government promissory notes instead of a bond, except for a bond for good behaviour; section 494: a child’s bond is executed by his sureties only.

8. Section 491: on proof of forfeiture the Court records the grounds, calls on the person to pay the penalty or show cause, and may recover it as a fine. Section 495 gives an appeal.

9. Rejection and cancellation of bail stand on different footings. Cancellation requires cogent and overwhelming circumstances: Dolat Ram.

10. A mere reappraisal of the merits is not a ground for cancellation; and section 483(2) confers the cancellation power on the High Court and Court of Session in a non-bailable case.