Parity cannot be sole ground for granting bail to accused in criminal case: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that parity is not the sole ground on which bail can be granted to an accused in criminal cases, despite the 'Bail is the rule, and jail, the exception' principle followed by courts for granting relief.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh, which set aside the bail granted to the accused in a murder case by the Allahabad High Court just because the co-accused were granted bail, said relief of bail cannot be granted without due regard to the circumstances involved in the alleged offence for which the accused person has been arrested.

"Bail has often been stated to be the rule, and jail, the exception. This cannot be emphasised enough. At the same time, this, however, does not mean that the relief of bail is to be granted without due regard to the circumstances involved in the alleged offence for which the accused person has been arrested.

"In this regard, it has to be noted that a court, while granting bail, has to consider a number of aspects. Judgments too many to count, delivered by this court, have delineated the relevant considerations to be kept in mind," the top court said in its November 28 verdict.

The bench noted that the high court failed to consider all that was relevant in granting bail to the accused. It said the court appears to have erroneously granted bail on the sole ground of parity, which it has misunderstood as a tool of direct application as opposed to parity being focused on the role played by the accused and not the thread of the same offence being the only common factor between the accused persons.

The bench said parity is not the sole ground on which bail can be granted, and it is the correct position in law.

"The word 'parity' is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as 'equality, especially of pay or position.' When weighing an application on parity, it is 'position' that is the clincher. The requirement of 'position' is not met only by involvement in the same offence. Position means what the person whose application is being weighed, his position in crime, i.e., his role, etc," the top court said.

It emphasised that there can be different roles played, someone part of a large group, intending to intimidate; an instigator of violence; someone who throws hands at the other side, instigated by such words spoken by another, someone who fired a weapon or swung a machete.

Parity, it said, of these people will be with those who have performed similar acts, and not with someone who was part of the group to intimidate the other by the sheer size of the gathering, with another who attempted to hack away at the opposer's limbs with a weapon.

The top court passed the order in a case of murder in a village of Uttar Pradesh, resulting from a verbal spat between villagers, where one instigator was granted bail and the other co-accused were granted bail on the grounds of parity.