Courts Cannot Compel Surrender While Rejecting Anticipatory Bail
Courts Cannot Compel Surrender While Rejecting Anticipatory Bail: Supreme Court Clarifies Legal Position In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court of India has categorically held that a court, while rejecting anticipatory bail, cannot direct the accused to surrender before the trial court. Such a direction has been declared wholly without jurisdiction. A bench of the Court clarified that the power to reject an anticipatory bail application does not include the authority to compel the accused to surrender. If a court intends to reject the application, it may simply do so—nothing more. The Court further emphasized that once a Magistrate takes cognizance and issues process, the normal course is to issue summons, and the accused is only required to appear before the court in response to such summons, not to be forced into surrender.