Supreme Court Larger Bench to Decide if Day of Remand be included while computing 60 days in Granting Default Bail

Supreme Court Larger Bench to Decide if Day of Remand be included while computing 60 days in Granting Default Bail

A division bench of Supreme Court (SC) comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy, referred to a three-judge bench the issue "Whether or not the day on which the accused is remanded should be excluded or included while calculating the period of 60 days for grant of default bail?"

A three-judge SC bench shall consider the aforesaid issue in the case relating to grant of bail to DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhwan in the money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Yes Bank fraud.

The division bench said that the question of interim bail should also be decided by the three-judge bench and it noted that "It retrospectively felt a little guilty that they heard this matter for a long time." The division bench assured, "We will try to frame the issues at the earliest."

A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had in September 2020 stayed a Bombay High Court's (HC) judgment by which bail was granted to the Wadhawan brothers.

The HC in its order had granted bail on the basis that ED had failed to file a charge sheet in this case within the 60-day window stipulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). It ruled, "Excluding the first day of remand while computing the period of 60 days cannot be sustained and is liable to be set aside."

According to Section 167(2) of CrPC, an accused can be detained for a maximum of 90 days for a crime punishable with death, life imprisonment or a sentence of over 10 years. If the investigation relates to any other offence, the accused can be detained for 60 days.

Wadhawan brothers were remanded to custody on 14 May 2020 and on 12 July 2020, the 60th day expired. ED had filed its charge sheet on the next day i.e. on 13 July 2020.

Against the said order of the HC, an appeal was filed by the ED before the Top Court. The Apex Court had put a stay on the order of the HC and agreed to examine the legal question raised in the case concerning the computation of period allowed to investigating agency to file charge sheet in a case.

The Agency contended that the day on which the accused is remanded should be excluded while calculating the 60-day period.

On behalf of the Wadhawan brothers, it was contended that the 60-day period will start running from the day on which the accused are remanded to custody. In September 2020, the case was heard and Justice Kaul had said that two-aspect need to be examined in detail.

He stated that "The first issue is whether the date on which accused is remanded should be excluded (while computing the 60 days). The second issue is whether Saturdays, Sundays should be excluded. These are issues we would like to examine and interpret."