Anticipatory Bail Plea Not Maintainable Once Accused Enters Appearance, Either Personally Or Through Counsel: Karnataka High Court

[27 January 2022] The Karnataka High Court has said that once an accused has appeared before the court, either personally or through his counsel, he cannot seek anticipatory bail by invoking section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Justice H P Sandesh thus dismissed the anticipatory bail petition filed by one Ramesh and granted him liberty to approach the Trial Court by filing the necessary application for recalling the warrant issued against him. The bench relied on the judgement of the Karnataka High Court in the case of S.R. Nagaraj v. State of Karnataka reported in 2011 SCC OnLine Kar 3301 and in the case K. Somasekhar v. State of Karnataka reported in 2015 SCC OnLine Kar 8412. It was held in these cases that once the accused appeared before the Trial Court and thereafter on account of his absence on any later date a warrant was issued by the Court for deliberate absence, the remedy of anticipatory bail under Section 438 Cr.P.C. is not available to such a person. Taking note of the fact that the petitioner had appeared before the Trial Court through an advocate and also filed an application under Section 205 of Cr.P.C., instead of 317 of Cr.P.C., seeking an exemption for the day, the court said, “Once an application seeking an exemption was allowed, the petitioner again cannot invoke Section 438 of Cr.P.C., and instead of filing an application for recalling the warrant issued by the Court for non-appearance has approached this Court and also the Trial Court.”