Short Essay on Bail – The term ‘bail’ is defined as to set at liberty a person arrested or imprisoned, on security being taken for his appearance on a day and at a place named.
As clear from the above definition, bail is granted to a detente or arrestee after furnishing the required bond. Bails are governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which also classifies the offences as ‘bailable’ and ‘non-bailable’.
The grant, refusal or cancellation of bail is an exercise subject to judicial discretion and, therefore, bail is granted only after taking into account and carefully considering all relevant factors including the nature, circumstances and gravity of crime, the character of the accused and whether or not it would be in the interest of justice to release the accused on bail. An important factor that is weighed is if the accused, after his release, is likely to influence the outcome of the case in any manner.
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Going by the spirit of Indian Constitution, the denial of bail is a denial of personal liberty and, therefore, the case of bail in non-bailable offence is considered in light of Article 21 and the exceptions to it. Article 22 of the Constitution provides for the protection against arrest and detention in certain cases envisaging the rights of the arrestee.
Before bail is granted the court is to look to it that the bailee does come back to stand trial and does not meddle with the evidence or the witnesses. Every accused is presumed to be innocent until proved guilty and so bail must not be ordinarily denied unless doing so is somehow likely to hurt the cause of justice.
A mere allegation does not make one guilty, which means that an accused is as much entitled to his right to protection of life and personal liberty as any other citizen of India. The grant of bail is the rule and, denial an exception.