Bail a rule, prison an exception: SC

Incarceration of a large number of people that too for a long period due to denial of bail is not good for criminal jurisprudence or society, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said, urging the judges to show a compassionate and “humane attitude” while passing custody orders.

The apex court said a fundamental postulate of criminal jurisprudence is the presumption of innocence until found guilty, and occasionally there is a necessity to introspect if denial of bail to an accused is the right thing to do based on the facts and circumstances of a case.

A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta also said that conditions for the grant of bail ought not to be so strict as to be incapable of compliance, thereby making the grant of bail illusory.

It said one of the important facets of criminal jurisprudence is that grant of bail is the general rule and putting a person in jail is an exception.

“Unfortunately, some of these basic principles appear to have been lost sight of with the result that more and more persons are being incarcerated and for longer periods. This does not do any good to our criminal jurisprudence or to our society,” it said.

The bench said the grant or denial of bail is entirely the discretion of the judge considering a case, reports PTI.