Published on: February 18, 2024 at 13:52 IST
Court: Supreme Court of India
Citation: Souvik Bhattacharya V. Enforcement Directorate (2023)
Honourable Supreme Court of India has held that Criminal Court may issue Summons or Warrants under the aegis of Section 204 CrPC. It is held that if the Criminal Court does not issues either the summons or warrant then application for seeking bail can-not be entertained. It is held that Bail under Section 437 CrPC would come into play when the accused is arrested or detained or when the summons or warrant is issued against the accused for causing him to be brought or to appear before the Court. In absence of any order for issuance of summons or warrant under Section 204 CrPC or under any other provision of CrPC, the summons can-not be issued or served upon the Accused nor Accused can be arrested or taken into custody.
8. In our opinion, the Court, while taking cognizance of an offence is of the opinion that there is sufficient ground for proceeding, may issue summons for the attendance of the accused when the case appears to be a summons case, or may issue a warrant for causing the accused to be brought or to appear before the Court, when the case appears to be a warrant case under Section 204 of Cr.P.C.
The form of summons has to be as prescribed under Section 61 and the form of warrant of arrest has to be as prescribed under Section 70 of Cr.P.C. Further, when any person accused of or suspected of the commission of any non-bailable offence is arrested or detained without warrant by an officer in charge of the police station or appears or is brought before the Court other than the High Court or Court of Session, he could be released by the Court on bail under Section 437 of Cr.P.C.
9. In the instant case though there was no order passed by the Special Court for issuance of summons or warrant against the appellant, a summons under Section 61 came to be issued on 22.12.2022 requiring the appellant to appear before the Special Court on 07.01.2023. The appellant appeared before the Special Court and applied for his release on bail. Since there was no order passed by the Special Court for issuance of the summons or warrant, in our opinion, the application of the appellant seeking bail could not have been entertained. There was a basic flaw in the proceedings conducted before the Special Court. It is not disputed by the learned ASG Mr. Raju that the appellant was not arrested during the course of investigation and also when the prosecution complaint was filed before the Special Court.
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra