Hanuman S/O Vishwanath Nehare vs State Of Maharashtra And Ors. on 5 March, 2001
8. The cases of persons under the age of 16 or a woman or sick or infirm person shall, of course be not covered by this bar as the proviso empowers the Magistrate to grant bail even in cases where offences punishable with the death or life imprisonment or alternatively lesser punishment say ten years in so far as woman, persons under the age of 16, sick or infirm are concerned. However, for releasing such persons on bail in exercise of power under section 437, the Magistrate is required to give reasons. Nevertheless, the mere fact that the accused is a woman, by itself, may not be sufficient to exercise jurisdiction to grant bail. A learned Single Judge of this Court in B.S. Rawat, Assistant Collector of Customs v. Andre Christopher Mydlarz and others (supra), has laid down that the word "may" appearing in the provision does not mean 'shall' and 'must' and as such it is not obligatory on Court to release the accused only on count that she is woman and all other considerations are to be weighed while exercising the jurisdiction to grant bail to a woman.