UP set to restore legal provisions of anticipatory bail

NEWDELHI: Forty-three years after it did away with the legal provisions of the anticipatory bail, the UP government on Monday said that it will soon restore the law, providing a succour to its residents who often have to rush to the SC for relief when they face arrest in criminal cases.

Yogi Adityanath government informed the Supreme Court on Monday that it will bring a bill in the assembly, seeking to revive anticipatory bail in the state. The relief was withdrawn in UP during the emergency in 1975.

Appearing for the government, additional advocate general Aishwarya Bhatti told a bench led by Justice SA Bobde that the state will bring the bill in a modified manner.

It would be different from the one that Mayawati government passed in the assembly in 2010. However, the law was not notified after the President returned it to the governor in 2011 seeking some clarifications. Bhatti made her submissions before the bench while the latter was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Sanjeev Bhatnagar who said absence of anticipatory bail in the UP deprived liberty to its residents.

A similar problem exists in Uttarkhand too, he said. “In the light of the state (UP) counsel’s statement, the petitioner, advocate Sanjeev Bhatnagar, need not press the issue so far as UP is concerned,” the court ordered after recording Bhatti’s statement. The bench, however, asked the state of Uttarakhand to clear its stand on the next date of hearing.