The Supreme Court has in a judgment said that bail may be the rule in many cases, but anticipatory bail is certainly not the norm.
A Bench of Justices C.T. Ravikumar and Sanjay Kumar said the power of the courts to grant anticipatory or pre-arrest bail is an extraordinary one, and not to be given for the asking.
“Though in many cases it was held that bail is said to be a rule, it cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be said that anticipatory bail is the rule. It cannot be the rule and the question of its grant should be left to the cautious and judicious discretion of the court, depending on the facts and circumstances of each case,” the top court said in a recent judgment.
