Incomplete charge sheet does not revive right to claim statutory bail: Karnataka High Court

The high court has said that mere filing of an incomplete charge sheet or the postscript reserving a right to file supplementary charge sheet, cannot mean that the accused can be released on grant of statutory bail. The court said this while dismissing the bail petition filed by a 27-year-old person from Bengaluru city seeking statutory/default bail for offences under Pocso.

“The filing of charge sheet without accompanying reports as those from the FSL or the CDR does not denude it of its character as a final report in the eye of law nor does it revive or confer upon the accused a right to claim statutory bail,” Justice M Nagaprasanna said.

The petitioner, working as housekeeping staff in a private hospital, had a physical relationship with a co-worker, despite knowing that she was underaged. The girl died by suicide and it was found that she was pregnant at the time of her death.

An FIR was registered for offences punishable under BNS sections 64 and 108, sections 3(2)(v-a), 3(1)(w)(ii) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and sections 3, 4, 5(j)(ii), (l) and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act based on the complaint by deceased’s mother. On December 23, 2025, the special court refused default bail to the petitioner accused.

Challenging rejection of bail, the petitioner contended that BNSS section 193(2) mandates that the charge sheet should be filed within 60 days for offences punishable under Section 64 of the BNS or for offences under the Pocso Act. It was further submitted that the charge sheet was incomplete as the FSL report, DNA report, CDRs or retrieval of mobile phone contents were not filed along with it.

Justice Nagaprasanna cited the Apex Court judgement and said that once a charge sheet is filed within the stipulated period, with all material barring the reports, the right to statutory bail stands extinguished.

“The criminal process is not a ritual of perfection at its inception; it is an evolving inquiry where additional evidence may surface in the fullness of time. To insist upon absolute completeness at the stage of filing of the charge sheet would be to impose an impracticable burden upon the investigative machinery, a caveat, this would be vis-a-vis the facts obtained in each of the cases. The charge sheet having been filed within 90 days and its alleged incompleteness being of no legal consequence to the claim of default bail, the petitioner cannot be enlarged or set at liberty on the said ground,” the court said.