Why in News?

• A Delhi Court of Special Judge Sunena Sharma, granted bail to accused of taking bribe of INR 12 lakh.
  • The court remarked that the First Information Report in this case is under Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which entails punishment only up to seven years and the accused is in judicial custody for more than a month.

Background

• The case was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in June, under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
• The accused told the complainant about irregularities in the records of provident funds of employees of a private hospital.
• The accused further told that a penalty of INR 1.5 crore would be imposed because of aforementioned irregularities.
• Later, the accused proposed settling the matter without any penalty, by proposing a condition of 20% amount as bribe, which he reduced to INR 12 lakh.

Court’s Observations

• The court observed that while exercising the discretion to grant or dismiss the bail, the court has to take into account various factors such as:
  • nature of offence,
  • reasons of apprehension of witnesses being influenced or evidence being hampered,
  • position and status of accused with reference to victim or witnesses.
• The court further observed that “Bail cannot be refused in an indirect process of punishing the accused before he is convicted”.

All About Bail

• The process of judicial release of an accused person from custody, on the condition that the accused person will appear in court at a later date, is known as Bail.
• Criminal offences are classified as Bailable and Non-Bailable crimes and are regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.), 1973.
• The term ‘bail’ is not defined under Cr.P.C.
• Moreover, it is a limb of liberty enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India, 1950

Types of Bail

1. Regular Bail (in Bailable and Non-Bailable offenses) - It can be granted to a person who has already been arrested and kept in police custody. A person can file a bail application for regular bail under Sections 437 and 439 of the Cr.P.C., 1973.
2. Anticipatory Bail - Under Section 438 of Cr.P.C., any individual who discerns that he may be tried for a non-bailable offense can apply for an anticipatory or advance bail application.
3. Interim Bail – This type of bail is granted to the accused before the hearing for a regular or anticipatory Bail grant.
4. Default Bail - Default bail is granted on the default of the police or investigating agency to file its report/complaint within the prescribed period.

Legal Provision

Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988

Public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act.—Whoever, being, or expecting to be a public servant, accepts or obtains or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain from any person, for himself or for any other person, any gratification whatever, other than legal remuneration, as a motive or reward for doing or forbearing to do any official act or for showing or forbearing to show, in the exercise of his official functions, favour or disfavour to any person or for rendering or attempting to render any service or disservice to any person, with the Central Government or any State Government or Parliament or the Legislature of any State or with any local authority, corporation or Government company referred to in clause (c) of section 2, or with any public servant, whether named or otherwise, shall be punishable with imprisonment which shall be not less than six months but which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to fine.

(Explanations) —

(a) “Expecting to be a public servant”. If a person not expecting to be in office obtains a gratification by deceiving others into a belief that he is about to be in office, and that he will then serve them, he may be guilty of cheating, but he is not guilty of the offence defined in this section.

(b) “Gratification”. The word “gratification” is not restricted to pecuniary gratifications or to gratifications estimable in money.

(c) “Legal remuneration”. The words “legal remuneration” are not restricted to remuneration which a public servant can lawfully demand but include all remuneration which he is permitted by the Government or the organization, which he serves, to accept.

(d) “A motive or reward for doing”. A person who receives gratification as a motive or reward for doing what he does not intend or is not in a position to do, or has not done, comes within this expression.

(e) Where a public servant induces a person erroneously to believe that his influence with the Government has obtained a title for that person and thus induces that person to give the public servant, money or any other gratification as a reward for this service, the public servant has committed an offence under this section.