Bail. ---------- (This may be useful for you someday) ----------------- The judiciary has an important role to play in safeguarding the liberty of the subjects. As the front line persons in the administration of justice, Magistrates have a very special place. In the discharge of their great responsibility they must not only exercise their independent judgment (subject to the provisions of law but only to the provisions of law) in deciding whether detention and continued detention is necessary, but they should also keep a watchful eye on the activities of the police in areas over which they have jurisdiction in matters pertaining to the deprivation of personal liberty. Per Dr A R B Amerasingha – vide - Our fundamental rights of personal security and physical liberty. ******** When, therefore, reference is made to a power to admit a corpus to bail, the term bail must not be understood in the sense that we understand it in the Criminal Procedure Code-the release or setting at liberty of a person arrested or imprisoned either on his own recognizance or upon others becoming sureties for his appearance on a future date-but rather the transfer of control from prison to some other place approved by Court but always to be under the surveillance of Court. Perhaps this situation became necessary owing to the dearth of Courts available in early times to deal with urgent applications and consequently the Judge was compelled to have some make-shift arrangement for the safe custody of the prisoner pending the determination of his application for release. per Justice Alles in Kanapathy v. Jayasinghe (1964) 66 NLR 549 at 551 ************* The entire purpose of ordering bail will be negatived if the bail ordered is beyond the capacity of the suspect. The Magistrate should note that the principle pertaining to the ordering of bail is that the bail should not be excessive. If the bail is excessive, then the suspect is unable to furnish such bail and the result is the ordering of bail itself is a punishment which results in the suspect being in the remand jail. Another principle the Magistrate should observe is that when a person has several cases pending against him pertaining to like transactions the principle adopted so far by Court is to order reasonably sufficient bail in one case to ensure the attendance in Court of the suspect and to formally order bail in respect of the other cases. In the cases in which bail is formally ordered reference can be made to the number of the Magistrates Court case in which reasonably sufficient bail has been ordered. By the term reasonably sufficient two factors are indicated : (1) it must be reasonable bail in the circumstances, and (2) the bail must not be excessive so as to prevent the suspect from furnishing bail - the bail order thus becoming a punitive order. per Justice SENEVIRATNE, in Pathirana v. The State (1985) 2 Sri LR 75 ******* As an indispensable component of the judicial system, a considerable duty is cast on the Bar to assist the Court to arrive at a proper finding on an application for bail. To achieve this end the Bar must suitably be acquainted with the facts of the bail application and in particular the Law applicable. On the hand the State and aggrieved parties should exercise due care not to raise frivolous objections against bail applications. BAIL-CONCEPT-APPLICATION by A.W. Abdus Salam --------- JAYA WEWA
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 13:04:37 +0000
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