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2005 (9) TMI 694 - SC - Indian LawsMurder - Offence u/s 302 r/w Section 34 - Challenged the Order passed for Grant Of Bail - HELD THAT:- We agree with the submission urged before us that the directions contained in the aforesaid judgment of the High Court are only in the nature of guidelines and the High Court should not be understood to have laid down an invariable rule to be observed with mathematical precision. In fact in the very first paragraph of the judgment the learned Judges observed that they were making "an attempt to frame certain guidelines" for the grant of bail. Difficulties may arise if such a direction is treated as an invariable rule in the matter of grant of discretionary relief. The rule laid down in Dharampal's case may be inferentially understood to mean that unless a convict has undergone five years imprisonment, he should not be released on bail. This would again lead to travesty of justice, because in a given case having regard to the evidence on record and the reasoning of the Court convicting the accused, the High Court in an appeal may well be persuaded and justified in granting bail to the appellant even while admitting his appeal. We, therefore, hold that the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Dharampal's case laid down guidelines which ought to be kept in mind by Courts dealing with applications for grant of bail in a pending appeal. It does not lay down any hard and fast rule of universal application. As we have observed earlier, it would be futile to lay down any strait jacket formula in such matters. So far as the instant appeal is concerned by our order dated May 12, 2005 we have granted bail to the appellant who had remained in custody for about six years and four months. Apart from the facts and circumstances of the case, we also notice the fact that the co-accused had been released on bail by the High Court. The interim order made on May 5, 2005 is made absolute. This appeal stands disposed of in the above terms.
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