The Allahabad High Court has once again made it clear that bail cancellation is not a casual act but a legal safeguard to protect justice. It ensures that an accused who has been granted bail does not misuse liberty to threaten witnesses, tamper with evidence, or misuse the judicial process.
“The mechanism for cancellation of bail is provided in law in order to ensure that justice will be done to the Society by preventing the accused, who had been set at liberty by the bail order from tampering with the evidence,” Justice Ashutosh Srivastava observed.
The Court explained that bail cancellation differs from bail rejection. While rejection denies bail in the first place, cancellation takes back the liberty already granted. Therefore, this power must be used with great care.
Justice Srivastava further stated:
“Cancellation of bail necessarily involves the review of a decision already made and this should be exercised very sparingly and with due caution.”
Under Section 439(2) of Cr.P.C (now Section 483(3) under the new Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita), the High Court holds the power to cancel bail. The Court added that cancellation is not limited to new developments after bail. If the original bail order was based on irrelevant material or did not consider important facts, it can be set aside.
Case Background
In this case, the applicant alleged that the accused convinced him to invest ₹2 crores in a sand mining business. Despite earning over ₹10 crores in profit, the accused allegedly refused to share any returns. Later, he forged documents to show a fake sale of agricultural land worth nearly ₹3 crores to the applicant. A forensic lab confirmed the documents were fake, and additional charges were added under Sections 467, 468, 471, and 120B IPC.
The accused was granted bail by the Sessions Court. However, the applicant approached the High Court, pointing out that the accused was also involved in multiple criminal cases and had been booked under the Gangster Act. It was also alleged that he was threatening the applicant and even filed a false rape case against him.
“A final closure report has been filed in favour of the applicant herein by the Police mentioning the case to be a fake one and that no such incident had taken place,” the Court noted.
The Court found that the rape case was filed to pressurize the applicant into withdrawing his complaints. It was revealed that the victim demanded ₹50 lakhs to falsely claim rape.
Furthermore, the applicant was allegedly attacked by the accused and his gang in the Bulandshahr Court premises, showing a clear threat to his safety and the judicial process.
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Relying on Supreme Court rulings in Prasanta Kumar Sarkar v. Ashis Chatterjee and Deepak Yadav v. State of U.P., the Court emphasized that bail can be cancelled even without any new developments if the initial bail order was flawed.
The Court found that the Sessions Judge had not properly considered the accused’s criminal background or the seriousness of the forged documents.
“The bail order showed non-application of mind and non-consideration of the law laid down by the Supreme Court,” Justice Srivastava remarked.
Considering all facts, including threats, forged evidence, false rape case, and criminal history, the Allahabad High Court ruled that it was a fit case for bail cancellation.
“Accordingly, the bail of the opposite party no.2/accused was cancelled.”
Case Title: Ahswani Kumar Agarwal v. State of U.P. and Another [CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL CANCELLATION APPLICATION No. - 6 of 2023]
Counsel for Applicant : Nipun Singh, Sumit Suri
Counsel for Opposite Party : Rajiv Lochan Shukla, Shikhar Awasthi
