Press "Enter" to skip to content

Uttar Pradesh set to restore anticipatory bail

Forty-three years after it did away with the provisions of anticipatory bail, Uttar Pradesh will soon restore the law, providing succour to residents who often have to rush to the Supreme Court for relief in case they face arrest in criminal cases.

The Yogi Adityanath government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it will bring a Bill in the Assembly seeking to revive anticipatory bail in the state. The relief was withdrawn in Uttar Pradesh during the Emergency in 1975.

Appearing for the government, additional advocate general Aishwarya Bhatti told a bench led by justice SA Bobde that the state will bring the Bill in a modified manner. It would be different from the one the Mayawati government in 2010 had passed in the Assembly. However, the law then was not notified after the president returned it to the governor in 2011 seeking some clarifications.

Bhatti made her submissions before the bench, while the latter was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Sanjeev Bhatnagar who said that the absence of anticipatory bail in the state deprived liberty to its residents.

A similar problem exists in Uttarkhand too, he said.

“In the light of the state [UP] counsel’s statement, the petitioner, advocate Sanjeev Bhatnagar, need not press the issue so far as UP is concerned,” the court ordered after recording Bhatti’s statement.

The bench, however, asked the state of Uttarakhand to clear its stand on the next date of hearing.

On the last occasion the top court had pulled up UP for not placing before the Assembly the Code of Criminal Procedure (UP) Amendment Bill 2010.

After the president returned the Bill on technical grounds, the UP government did not get the proposal passed again in the Assembly with the amendment. Bhatnagar said denial of pre-arrest bail has led to immense hardships to the people of UP, who, too, were entitled to equality before law under the Constitution.

Source: HindustanTimes