Supreme Court's Fresh Fire On Bail Denials

On Wednesday the Supreme Court held that the principle of "bail is the rule and jail is the exception" applied even to money laundering cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The top court also clarified that confessions by an accused, booked under PMLA, to an investigating officer would not ordinarily be admissible as evidence.

The court made the strong observation while granting bail to Prem Prakash, allegedly an aide of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, in a money laundering case. This comes a day after the Supreme Court granted relief to Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, who was arrested in March in a money laundering case linked to Delhi's now-scrapped liquor policy. Earlier this month, AAP leader Manish Sisodia was also granted bail in a money laundering case.

In today's judgment, the bench of Justice BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan said, "Relying on the judgment in Manish Sisodia, we have said that even in PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), bail is a rule and jail the exception."

The bench also said any incriminating statement given by an accused to the investigating officer while in custody in a money laundering case will not be admissible as evidence. It said the bar against such confessions under Section 25 of Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (previously Indian Evidence Act) would be applicable.

"We hold statements of the appellant, if found to be incriminating, will be hit by Section 25. It would be a travesty to make the statement admissible merely because he was then under custody for another ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report). It will be extremely unfair to make such statements admissible as it would be against all canons of justice," the court said.

While granting bail to Prem Prakash, the top court took into account his long incarceration and the delay in trial due to a large number of witnesses. The bench held that Prakash was not prima facie guilty of the offenses and was unlikely to tamper with evidence. The court, therefore, granted bail to Prakash while imposing a bail bond of Rs 5 lakh.

Earlier this month, while granting relief to Mr Sisodia, the court had cited 'bail is the rule' principle. "Trial court and High Court ought to have given due weightage to this. Courts have forgotten that bail ought not to be withheld as punishment," the court had said, holding the accused's right to liberty as "sacrosanct".