Detenue shall not be arrested without cancellation of bail granted by court: LHC

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court held that once an accused person has been granted bail, he cannot be arrested by the investigating agency without seeking cancellation of bail granted by the court of competent jurisdiction.

The court passed this order in a petition of Mujtaba Saleem Butt had approached the Lahore High Court for recovery of his son Rashid Hussain Butt who was on bail and police arrested him again after adding new offences in the FIR.

The court declared the arrest of the detenue as illegal and DIG Lahore assured the court to hold inquiry and to take a strict action against delinquent police officials in accordance with the law.

The DIG also assured the court that in future the detenue shall not be arrested without filing an application for cancellation of his bail granted by the sessions court.

The court observed that it underscores the principle that bail, once granted, recognises an individual’s right to freedom and should not be undermined without due process and judicial oversight.

The court observed allowing the police to arrest an accused who has already been granted bail by merely adding new offences to the case, without first seeking the cancellation of the existing bail, would effectively grant law enforcement agencies the unrestricted authority to circumvent judicial orders.

The court observed that the arrest of an individual granted bail by a court of competent jurisdiction, without first seeking the cancellation of said bail on legitimate grounds, is an affront to the procedural safeguards designed to protect against the misuse of state power

To permit law enforcement agencies to nullify this judicial safeguard by the mere expedient of adding charges post hoc is to erode the foundations of our legal system, the court added.

Such a course of action not only flouts the explicit mandates of the law but also infringes upon the accused’s fundamental right to liberty, as enshrined in the Constitution, the court concluded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024