Allahabad High Court
Ajay & Another vs State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home. Lko ... on 29 June, 2021
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH ?Court No. - 20 Case :- U/S 482/378/407 No. - 2127 of 2021 Applicant :- Ajay & Another Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home. Lko & Another Counsel for Applicant :- Vivek Chandra,Krishna Pratap Singh Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Mohd. Faiz Alam Khan,J.
The case is taken up through video conferencing.
Heard learned counsel for applicants and learned A.G.A. for the State.
The present 482 Cr.P.C. application has been filed by the applicants with a prayer to direct the subordinate court to accept the same set of surety in all the 13 criminal cases wherein the applicants have been granted bail.
Learned counsel for applicants submits that applicants were falsely implicated in 13 criminal cases, however, in all those 13 cases, the applicants have been granted bail. However they are not in a position to arrange two sureties in each case and therefore despite they have been granted bail by the competent criminal court, they are still languishing in prison. 13 cases in which they have been granted bail are as under :
(i)Case Crime No. 258/2020, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station B.K.T. , District Lucknow.
(ii) Case Crime No. 94/2019, under Section 379, 411, 413 IPC, Police Station Alam Bagh, District Lucknow.
(iii) Case Crime No. 203/2020, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Alam Bagh, District Lucknow.
(iv) Case Crime No. 32/2020, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Alam Bagh, District Lucknow.
(v) Case Crime No. 972/2019, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Ghazipur, District Lucknow.
(vi) Case Crime No.286/2020, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Ghazipur, District Lucknow.
(vii) Case Crime No.259/2020, under Sections 379, 411, 413, 467, 468, 471 IPC, Police Station Wazirganj, District Lucknow.
(viii) Case Crime No. 74/2020, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Wazirganj, District Lucknow.
(ix) Case Crime No.377/2019, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Vikas Nagar, District Lucknow.
(x) Case Crime No.36/2020, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Vikas Nagar, District Lucknow.
(xi) Case Crime No.144/2020, under Sections 379, 411, 413, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC, Police Station Kaisarbagh, District Lucknow.
(xii) Case Crime No. 193/2020, under Sections 379, 411, 413 IPC, Police Station Sarojani Nagar, District Lucknow.
(xiii) Case Crime No.702/2019, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Police Station Ghazipur, District Lucknow.
It is also submitted that due to poverty, applicants are not in a position to arrange two sureties in each case and, therefore, having regard to the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court they may be permitted to file same sureties in all the thirteen cases mentioned above.
Learned Additional Government Advocate has not opposed the prayer of the learned counsel for applicants on the ground that, it is always the discretion and satisfaction of the trial Court, so far as, the acceptance of the sureties is concerned.
Having heard learned counsel for the rival parties, the only grievance of the applicants appear to be that, they despite have obtained the orders of the bail in thirteen cases are not able to come out of the prison, because they are not able to find separate sureties for each case, and a prayer has been made that, they be permitted to file same sureties in all the thirteen cases and a suitable direction in this regard be given to the trial Court.
The acceptance of the sureties and the verification of them is the prerogative of the trial court and the same in any case could not be controlled by this Court. Sufficient guidelines in this regard have been given by the High Court on administrative side to the subordinate Courts. However, as far as, the grievance of the applicants, pertaining to the fact that, they are not in a position to arrange separate sureties for all thirteen cases, the answer to this apprehension and grievance is implicit in Section 441-A of Code of Criminal Procedure, which is reproduced as under :-
"Declaration by sureties- Every person standing surety to an accused person for his release on bail, shall make a declaration before the Court as to the number of persons to whom he has stood surety including the accused, giving therein all the relevant particulars."
Perusal of this Section shows that, a person who is intending to be the surety of any accused person is obliged to declare before the Court that apart from the person to whom he is intending to be a surety, for how many other accused persons, he had stood surety. Therefore, the texture of the Section 441-A of the Cr.P.C., which has been introduced by way of amendment made in the year 2006 clearly reflects that, a person may stand surety for more than one accused person and in more than one case. So there appears no bar for a person to stand surety in more than one case and also for more than one accused person. However, as stated earlier, the status, verification and the competency of the surety will always be assessed by the trial Court before acceptance of such sureties.
It is therefore directed that, if the same sureties are placed before the trial Court who are otherwise competent and their status and other particulars have also been verified, the trial Court in its discretion may accept the same in all the thirteen cases.
With the aforesaid observations, the application is finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 29.6.2021 Muk