“Consequences of non-filing of Final Report to grant Default Bail: A Critical Study”

Abstract

The right to liberty is the natural right and also the fundamental right of an individual. However, a person has to respect the rights of others recognized by law like the inviolability of their body and their property. When a person is reasonably suspected to have committed an offence, the machinery of law is set in motion to arrest him and to bring him to trial and punish him, if found guilty. The act of arrest deprives a man of his liberty. Bail sets him free on securing his promise to take trial at a future date and to undergo punishment, if found guilty.
Order for release on bail under proviso to S. l87 (2) of Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (hereinafter referred to as ‘BNSS, 2023’) may appropriately be termed as, an order-on-default or Default Bail. Indeed, it is release on bail, on the default of the prosecution in filing charge- sheet within the prescribed period. The right to bail under S. 187(2) proviso (a) thereto is absolute. If the investigating agency failed to file charge-sheet before the expiry of 90 / 60 days, as the case may be, the accused in custody should be released on bail, irrespective of the order of bail passed by the Sessions Court.