SC says it is not mandatory to send accused to custody after charge sheet filed

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the need for an accused to be sent to custody by the trial court after filing the charge sheet, particularly when the accused is out on bail and cooperating with the probe. The court underlined that sending the accused to custody is not mandatory.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh said the trial court should not send the accused to judicial custody in all cases in a routine manner, which would unnecessarily curtail the liberty of that person.

The bench noted that if the investigating agency has filed the charge sheet and the trial court has taken cognizance of the same, yet it cannot be a ground to arrest the accused.

The top court passed the order on a plea of Amanpreet Singh, an accused in a chit fund scam, for whom non-bailable warrants were issued, as he failed to appear before a trial court in Odisha. The bench noted that the accused was not arrested throughout the probe by the investigating agency.

The observation comes a fortnight after the top court ruled that each and every accused need not be arrested in a routine manner at the time of filing of charge-sheet.

On August 19, the Supreme Court had observed if an arrest is made routine, it can cause incalculable harm to the reputation and self-esteem of a person and emphasised that it is not mandatory to take the accused in custody at the time of filing a charge sheet.

Then, a bench of Justices Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy, in a different matter, had said: "If the Investigating Officer has no reason to believe that the accused will abscond or disobey summons and has, in fact, throughout cooperated with the investigation we fail to appreciate why there should be a compulsion on the officer to arrest the accused."