Unreasonably high surety amount as condition for bail violates right to liberty of accused: Supreme Court

Imposing unreasonably high amounts of surety on accused as condition for grant of bail defeats the very purpose of bail and violates the right to life and liberty of an accused under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court recently held [Ashok Sandeep Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh]..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was dealing with a case in which the courts below had imposed a surety amount of ₹10 lakh while granting bail to an accused person. "The purpose of directing an accused who has been released on bail to furnish surety is to ensure that the accused is present to answer further proceedings including at the trial. Determining the amount of surety at an unreasonably high amount effectively defeats the very purpose of the grant of bail and infringes the right to life and personal liberty of the accused protected by Article 21 of the Constitution," the Court said..The accused, one Ashok Sandeep Singh, was facing charges under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (impersonation), 420 (dishonest delivery of property), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (fraud by electronic documents) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Allahabad High Court had granted bail to the accused but imposed a condition of heavy surety. Thus, the trial court directed payment of ₹10 lakh bond payable in two sureties. The High Court later refused to entertain an application seeking to reduce the surety amount. This prompted the accused to approach the apex court. The top court noted that despite the order of the High Court dated October 18, 2023, the petitioner who is a retired judicial clerk, was languishing in jail due to his inability to furnish the surety amount of ₹10 lakh. The Supreme Court, therefore, proceeded to reduce the surety amount to ₹25,000. "We accordingly order and direct that the quantum of surety which has been fixed by the trial Judge in the amount of ₹10 lakh shall stand reduced to ₹25,000. Likewise, the personal bond which his to be filed by the petitioner shall be in the amount of ₹25,000," the Court ordered..Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave with advocates Prastut Dalvi and Pallavi Sharma appeared for the accused. .[Read order]