In a major ruling the Supreme Court observed that the day of remand is to be included for considering for considering a claim for default bail and the observation was made while answering a reference in the Yes Bank Case.
The Bench comprising Justices KM Joseph, BV Nagarathna and Hrishikesh Roy noted that the remand period will be calculated from the date when the Magistrate remanded the accused.
An accused becomes entitled to default bail if the chargesheet isn’t filed by 61st or the 91st day of the remand. Holding so, the Bench dismissed the appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate challenging the default bail granted to former DHFL promoters, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan in the Yes Bank case.
The appeal was filed against the Bombay High Court judgment wherein it was observed that the day of remand has to be included for the purpose of computing the period of 90 days or 60 days as contemplated in Section 1 67 (2)(a)(ii) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In the present case, the accused were remanded on 14.05.2020 and the chargesheet was filed on 13.7.2020. The accused argued that the 60 days expired on 12.07.2020, if it is computed from the day of remand.
The Trial Court denied default bail to the accused by holding that the 60 days will have to be computed by excluding the date of first remand. However, the Bombay High Court, under the impugned judgment noted that, excluding the first date of remand while computing the period of 60 days was erroneous and held that the filing of the Charge Sheet by the ED on 13.7.2020, being on the 61st day, would entitle the respondents to default bail.
An accused becomes entitled to default bail if the chargesheet isn’t filed by 61st or the 91st day of the remand, the Bench stated. The Bench reserved the judgement to be pronounced on a later date.
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