Can grant transit anticipatory bail for offence committed in other state: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that it has the power to grant a transit anticipatory bail to an accused in connection with an offence for which a case has been registered outside its jurisdiction or state. Giving the ruling, Justice Siddharth observed, ''There is no fetter on the part of the High Court in granting a transit anticipatory bail to enable the applicants to approach the courts, including high courts where the offence is alleged to have been committed and the case is registered.'' The order was passed on Wednesday by the court hearing a petition filed by Amita Garg and six others, who had approached the court seeking a transit or anticipatory bail in a case lodged in Rajasthan's Jaipur over a money matter.

While granting the bail to the applicants, the court said, ''The mere fact that an accused has been granted a transit bail does not mean that the regular court, under whose jurisdiction the case would fall, would extend such transit bail and convert such a transit bail into an anticipatory bail.'' ''Upon the grant of the transit bail, the accused person, who has been granted such a transit bail, has to apply for an anticipatory bail before the regular court,'' the court observed.

The court said that on moving an application, the regular court would consider such an anticipatory bail on its own merits.