Khushalbir Singh @ Chittu v. State of Punjab
Case brief
What is this about?
Keywords: bail; special statute; Section 43D(5); Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967; Article 21; personal liberty; prolonged pre-trial incarceration; statutory threshold; prima facie; disciplined scrutiny; individualised assessment; executory tier; operational rather than directive role; calibrated conditions; stringent conditions; evidentiary matrix; Shadab Ahmad; batch of appeals. Useful for arguments on (i) balancing liberty against collective security in special-statute prosecutions, (ii) refusal to treat gravity of an incident as the sole criterion for continued detention where the accused's role is operational, (iii) custody being unnecessary where documentary/electronic evidence is already secured and forensically processed, and (iv) differentiated, appellant-by-appellant bail adjudication instead of a collective approach.
What did the court decide?
Enlargement on bail for appellant Shadab Ahmad, subject to strict compliance with conditions imposed by the Court.