Bail Is Rule, Jail Exception Even Under UAPA: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today held that “bail is the rule and jail is the exception” even under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and statutory restrictions on bail under Section 43D(5) cannot override constitutional guarantees under Articles 21 and 22.A bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice BV Nagarathna observed that the principle that bail is the rule was not merely a statutory concept under the CrPC but a constitutional principle rooted in personal liberty and the presumption of innocence.“The often-invoked phrase bail is the rule and jail is the exception is not merely an empty statutory slogan flowing from the CrPC,” Justice Bhuyan said while pronouncing the judgment.“It is a constitutional principle flowing from Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution and the presumption of innocence, which is the cornerstone of any civilised society governed by the rule of law”, the court observed.The Court clarified that though statutes such as the UAPA could impose restrictions on grant of bail in cases involving national security, such restrictions could not “invert the constitutional relationship between liberty and detention.”“The statutory embargo of Section 43D(5) must remain a circumscribed restriction that operates subject to the guarantee of Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution,” the Court held.“Therefore, we have no manner of doubt in stating that even under the UAP Act, bail is the rule and jail is the exception”, the Court stated.The Court made the observations while granting bail to a Jammu and Kashmir man accused in a narco-terror case investigated by the National Investigation AgencyThe Court said that this judgment had become necessary to clarify the legal position following the three-judge bench ruling in Union of India v. KA Najeeb and to address confusion created by subsequent two-judge bench decisions.The Court observed that the judgment in KA Najeeb had specifically cautioned against allowing Section 43D(5) to become the sole metric for denial of bail or for wholesale breach of the constitutional right to speedy trial.The Court also expressed serious reservations regarding various aspects of the judgment denying bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, including the direction effectively preventing the accused from seeking bail for one year.The Court further referred to NCRB statistics placed before Parliament by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs showing that UAPA conviction rates across India ranged between 1.5% and 4% between 2019 and 2023. In Jammu and Kashmir, the conviction rate was below 1%. The Court said this was “one more good reason” to follow Najeeb.Case no. – SLP(Crl) No. 1090/2026Case Title – Syed Iftikhar Andrabi v. National Investigation Agency, JammuCitation : 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 512Click Here To Read/Download Judgment

Bail Is Rule, Jail Exception Even Under UAPA: Supreme Court

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Bail Is Rule, Jail Exception Even Under UAPA: Supreme Court

Amisha Shrivastava

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