Court can reject anticipatory bail but cannot direct accused to surrender: SC

A court can reject anticipatory bail of an accused but it has no jurisdiction to direct him to surrender before the trial court, the Supreme Court has said.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while hearing a plea filed by a man accused of cheating and forgery.

“If the court wants to reject the anticipatory bail, it may do so, but the court has no jurisdiction to say that the petitioner should now surrender,” the bench said.

The Jharkhand High Court had rejected anticipatory bail plea of the accused and asked him to surrender and seek regular bail.

In this case, a complaint had been filed before a magistrate alleging offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120B read with 34 of the IPC, in connection with a land dispute.

The High Court had dismissed the second anticipatory bail application of the accused on the ground that no new circumstances were shown.