The Allahabad High Court came down heavily on a petitioner for filing anticipatory bail applications directly in the High Court, stating that it was necessary to mention special circumstances for filing an application in the High Court.
A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal on Tuesday passed this order, while hearing a Criminal Miscellaneous Anticipatory Bail Application under Section 438 filed by Bhopal and two others. The Anticipatory Bail Application was moved by the applicants directly before the Court seeking anticipatory bail in a case filed at Police Station Sahibabad in District Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh.
“The Full Bench, consisting of five Judges in the case of Ankit Bharti vs State of UP and another, has cleared smog on the issue of concurrent jurisdiction for approaching at the first instant for anticipatory bail before High Court or Session Court and held that there must be compelling or special circumstances entitling a party to directly approach the High Court for grant of anticipatory bail,” the Court observed.
“In the light of the above-mentioned legal position, first of all the Court has to determine whether the applicants who approached the Court directly seeking anticipatory bail, have made out a case of compelling or special circumstances for entertaining this application,” it added.
After perusing the entire record, the Court found that in the anticipatory bail application, applicants have not mentioned any compelling or special circumstance to approach the Court directly without the avenue as available before the Court of Sessions being exhausted.
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“In view of above, in the opinion of the Court, no compelling or special circumstances exist in the present case warranting the jurisdiction of the Court being invoked directly without the avenue as available before the Court of Sessions being exhausted,” the Court said.
“Accordingly, the Anticipatory Bail Application is dismissed without expressing any opinion on merits of the case with liberty to the applicants to approach the concerned Court of Sessions,” the Court ordered.