With the repeated rejection of bail applications of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 [‘UAPA’] has been under the constitutional scrutiny for some time. Similar to other special statutes, S. 43-D(5) of UAPA makes grant of bail more onerous than other criminal offences[1] and restrains the Court from granting it if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the allegations are prima facie true. A threshold assessment of the merits of

The basis of AB under S.438 is the right to personal liberty under Article 21. To grant AB, Courts must consider whether the accusation has been made to harass or humiliate the accused by having him arrested, antecedents of the accused, if any, and a possibility of him fleeing from justice. The Court may also weigh in the nature and gravity of accusation. The legislature acknowledges that while granting AB, the Court may in its discretion impose conditions under S.438(2), suc

9th August 2024 was the eventful day when the Delhi Legislative Assembly Member, Manish Sisodia, was released on bail by the Apex Court in the Delhi Excise Policy Scam 2021-22. Sisodia, who spent 17 months in jail as an undertrial accused, has been booked under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act), the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) as well as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The arrest of Sisodia, many other Delhi MLAs lately, and