Accused must get option to furnish surety bond or fixed deposit: HC

Vijay Arora

Shimla, December 6

The pragmatic approach is that while granting bail with sureties, the court and the “officer” should give a choice to the accused to either furnish surety bonds or give a fixed deposit. The HP High Court made this observation while dealing with a bail petition where the accused/ petitioner belonging to Lucknow pleaded that he may be allowed to furnish a cash surety instead of surety bonds because he did not know anyone who resides nearby to stand as surety.

While allowing the request, Justice Anoop Chitkara observed, “It is beyond cavil that the sole purpose of a bond is to ensure the presence of the accused to attend the trial and surrender to undergo the sentence of imprisonment. The world is moving towards globalisation. In rapidly changing times, people are travelling more and more, covering long distances. It exposes them to the risk of being arraigned as accused in locations far away from their native places or places of residence. With unique identity details, monetary bail is even better. It will also address the unethical system of unscrupulous stock sureties, throwing them out of highly questionable and unethical practices”.

Passing the detail judgment on surety bonds, Justice Chitkara stated, “For any officer arresting the accused and asking for the execution of bonds, and any court granting bail or giving direction for furnishing bonds, or while suspending the execution of sentence, it is permissible to give an alternative option to the accused to furnish a personal bond, with an undertaking to attend the trial on each date, unless exempted, and subject to handing over a fixed deposit(s) of a certain amount”.

In the present case based on the complaint of the Registrar of Arni University, Indora, in Kangra district, the police registered an FIR against the petitioner and others on October 24, 2018, under Sections 420, 468, 471, 201, 120B of the IPC at Indora police station. The allegation against the petitioner was that he, in connivance with a woman, had fraudulently received the consideration for selling a fake mark-sheet to a student. While granting bail, the court directed the petitioner to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh only.

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