The Supreme Court has once again drawn a firm line: liberty cannot be made contingent on a cash payment.
Setting aside a pair of conditional bail orders issued by the Jharkhand High Court, the top court ruled that neither regular bail nor anticipatory bail can be tied to the deposit of money. The judges directed that, if arrested, the accused in the case must be released on bail, subject only to standard conditions fixed during investigation. A copy of the ruling has also been sent for consideration before the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court.
The case stemmed from a commercial dispute. A father and son were accused of failing to pay ₹9 lakh after purchasing craft paper. Following registration of a case, both sought anticipatory bail. Their request was turned down at the sessions level, after which they approached the High Court.
Instead of deciding the bail plea on its merits, the High Court issued directions asking the accused to file affidavits proving that ₹9,12,926.84 had been paid to the complainant. It went further, warning that failure to submit proof of payment would automatically lead to dismissal of the bail plea. Additional time was later granted, but the condition remained intact.
Those directions were challenged before a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan.
At the very outset, the bench described the High Court’s approach as “unusual,” noting that it overlooked binding precedent. The judges pointed to an earlier ruling which made it clear that bail decisions must turn on legal merit—not on financial assurances offered by the accused.
The court expressed clear dissatisfaction that such orders continue to surface despite repeated warnings. It underlined that if a case for bail is made out, courts must grant it; if not, they are free to refuse. What they cannot do, the bench stressed, is create a middle path where freedom is exchanged for money.
Calling the practice deeply problematic, the court reiterated that bail cannot be converted into a recovery mechanism or a tool to enforce payments.
With that, the conditional orders were quashed, and the accused were granted protection from arrest in accordance with law.
