An Insight into the Provisions Relating to Bail Practice and Procedure under the Code of Criminal Procedure

Whenever, a crime or offence is committed in any civilized society, it is usually reported to police authorities, as police authority is first representative of law. Thereafter, the police officials note down the information in daily diary and reaches to the scene of crime, for carrying out necessary preliminary investigation regarding the offence, offender / suspect, victim, complainant, witnesses etc. After doing this preliminary investigation, if police official finds offender or some person suspected to have committed the offence, the police official takes the offender and or suspect in custody, for further investigation. This is the first stage when the necessity of bail arises for taking out the person from police / judicial custody. The investigation of the case and filing of charge sheet in the competent court of law takes time. Therefore, the question arises before the court in every criminal case, whether an accused should be bailed out or sent to judicial custody, till the filing of the charge sheet. The object of this paper is to give an overview of the provisions of Cr. P.C. relating to bail, including stages of a criminal case, where bail can be granted, regulatory bodies which can grant bail.