Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

44. Counsel for the appellants in Sibbia, on the other hand, argued that since the denial of bail amounts to deprivation of personal liberty, courts should lean against the imposition of unnecessary restrictions on the scope of Section 438, when no such restrictions are prescribed by the legislature under that provision. The Court observed that Section 438(1) is couched in broad and unqualified terms and was of the opinion that such broad language ought not to be infused with restraints and conditions which the legislature itself did not think proper or necessary to impose. The court laid emphasis on the primacy of the presumption of innocence in criminal jurisprudence, and observed that Section 438 was not enacted on a clean slate, but rather within the context of the existing provisions, Sections 437 (dealing with the power of courts other than the Court of Session and the High Court to grant bail in nonbailable cases) and Section 439 (which deals with the "special powers" of the High Court and the Court of Session regarding bail). In the light of the relevant extracts of Sibbia, it would now be worthwhile to recount the relevant observations on the issue. The discussion and conclusions in Sibbia are summarized as follows: