The Bailable v. Non-Bailable Classification in Indian Criminal Procedure

Abstract

This essay intends to describe how Indian criminal procedure arrived at it current legal position on the issue of bail. It illustrates the intention of the legislatures which presided over amendments at different points in time, both pre and post India’s independence, and then uses this history to explain how the system presently operates. After extracting the core assumptions that underpin the current bail regime, the essay takes on what it identifies as the twin pillars of bail jurisprudence: classification of offences as bailable vs. non-bailable, and the unfettered discretion that judges are conferred to decide bail pleas.

Keywords: criminal procedure, bail, indian law, criminal law, judicial process