NEW DELHI: In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has set aside an order of the Jharkhand High Court which granted anticipatory bail to a man, allegedly accused of cruelty and attempt to murder of his wife, on the condition that he would resume conjugal life with her and maintain her with dignity and honour.A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine George Masih, held that conditioning the grant of pre-arrest bail on the accused resuming conjugal life with his wife is improper and not permissible under the law. The court quashed the order passed by the Jharkhand High Court.“The spouses seemingly, at one point of time, had drifted apart and resided separately for some time. Imposing a condition that the appellant (accused husband) would maintain the respondent no.2 (wife) with dignity and honour is beset with risk in that it can generate further litigation. In such state of affairs, we are of the considered opinion that the High Court should have considered the prayer of the appellant for pre-arrest bail entirely on its own merit instead of imposing a condition,” the court observed in its order.According to the prosecution, the husband, Anil Kumar, was allegedly an accused in a case registered under Sections 498-A (cruelty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 313 (causing miscarriage without consent), 506 (criminal intimidation), 307 (attempt to murder), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.
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