New Delhi, Oct 10: In an important judgement, the Supreme Court has ruled that there is no prohibition for the competent courts to grant anticipatory bail to an accused even if the investigating agency has filed a chargesheet against him in a non-bailable offence. This ruling was given by a bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice B P Singh while granting anticipatory bail to a couple accused of harassing their daughter-in-law for dowry. "In our opinion, the courts i.e the courts of sessions, high court or this court has the necessary power vested in them to grant anticipatory bail in non-bailable offences under Section 438 of the criminal procedure code even when cognizance if taken or chargesheet is filed provided the facts of the case require the court to do so," it said. Setting aside an order of the Patna High Court rejecting their pre-arrest bail plea, it said object of Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code was to prevent undue harassment of accused persons by pre-trial arrest and detention.
Appearing for Bihar government, counsel B B Singh argued that since the trial court has taken cognizance of the offence, Section 438 could not be used for granting anticipatory bail even by the apex court.
He had contended that the only remedy available to the appellants was to approach the trial court, surrender and thereafter apply for regular bail under Section 439 of the code.

Bureau Report