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NEW DELHI: The Kerala precocious tribunal has ruled that an accused idiosyncratic volition beryllium entitled to statutory oregon "default" bail if the constabulary electronically record the last study aft 5 p.m. connected the past time of the legally prescribed probe period.The tribunal said that nether Kerala's Electronic Filing Rules, immoderate e-filing done aft 5 p.m. is legally treated arsenic being filed connected the adjacent moving day. As a result, if the constabulary taxable the last study aft that deadline, it would beryllium considered delayed, giving the accused a close to statutory bail.Justice Kauser Edappagath delivered the ruling portion proceeding a bail exertion filed by 2 persons, Aboobacker Siddique and Abdul Rouf M, who were booked for having 4.22 grams of MDMA astatine a homestay nether Sections 22(b) and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS).
The accused were arrested connected December 30, 2025, successful Kasaragod, arsenic per study by LiveLaw.They argued that the constabulary filed the last study electronically astatine 6:02 p.m. connected February 28, 2026, which was the 60th time of their custody, crossing the statutory deadline.The prosecution, however, claimed that since the offence carried a punishment extending up to 10 years, investigators had 90 days and not 60 days to record the report.
Rejecting the argument, the tribunal said default bail "is not simply a statutory right, but a cardinal close granted to an accused person," noting that the Supreme Court has tied it to Article 21 of the Constitution and repeatedly described it arsenic "indefeasible."The tribunal clarified that the longer 90-day play applies lone wherever the offence carries the decease penalty, beingness imprisonment, oregon a minimum condemnation of 10 years.
Offences punishable with imprisonment "up to" 10 years, without immoderate mandatory minimum, autumn nether the 60-day rule.On the prosecution's statement that the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS) had altered the threshold by replacing "not little than 10 years" with "ten years oregon more," the tribunal disagreed, holding that the aged and caller provisions "are aligned, with lone insignificant changes successful phraseology. The sixty-day and ninety-day model remains intact."On the question of the e-filing timing, the tribunal held that filings received aft 5 p.m. "shall, for the intent of limitation, beryllium deemed to person been instituted lone connected the adjacent moving day."Since the last study was uploaded astatine 6:02 p.m. connected the 60th day, the tribunal ruled that it efficaciously fell beyond the statutory play and granted bail to some accused, each connected a enslaved of Rs. 1 lakh with 2 sureties.
