Arrest warrant cannot be issued against person granted anticipatory bail: Calcutta HC quashes NBWs against defence personnel; says magistrate ignored bail protection in charge sheet

KOLKATA: A warrant of arrest cannot be issued against a person who was granted anticipatory bail, the Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri circuit bench held on June 13 while scrapping non-bailable warrants issued by a Kurseong judicial magistrate against two defence personnel.“If someone is granted anticipatory bail, he is protected from arrest, and if arrested, he must be released upon fulfilment of the conditions imposed by the court while granting the anticipatory bail. A warrant cannot be issued against him because the bail order already provides him protection from arrest. The only event when such a person may be arrested is when he violates the conditions of bail as directed by the court for him to comply with,” Justice Rai Chattopadhyay held.The order of the judicial magistrate at Kurseong on November 26, 2024, was challenged by the two defence personnel against whom non-bailable arrest warrants were issued. Their counsel and Deputy Solicitor General (DSGI) Sudipto Kumar Mazumder said, “A case was registered against the two after an alleged scuffle broke out in 2019 when the two, along with others, went to one of the encroached lands of defence for eviction, after notice.

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In 2019, the two defence officials were granted anticipatory bail by the Calcutta High Court’s circuit bench at Jalpaiguri. Mazumder submitted that the arrest warrant issued against them was a “gross irregularity and unauthorised exercise of power by the magistrate.”An FIR was registered at the Kurseong police station under sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with a member of an unlawful assembly, criminal trespass, wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, assault to a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty, causing damage to property, criminal intimidation, and common intention on February 5, 2019.It was submitted that both of them are defence personnel who, in the course of their duty, restrained the complainant and others from forcefully taking possession of defence land. They were granted anticipatory bail on June 28, 2019. A charge sheet was submitted on June 10, 2024, and it was mentioned that the accused persons are ‘bailed by court.’ After which, a non-bailable warrant of arrest was issued by the magistrate on November 26, 2024.The judge noted that in this case, the anticipatory bail was granted prior to the submission of the charge sheet by the police. “It is noticeable that the magistrate, in his enthusiastic pursuit to exercise an overwhelming statutory power of him which has the effect of even curtailing the personal liberty of an individual, has perhaps overlooked such recording in the charge sheet. Thus, the learned magistrate committed a wrong by delivering an order without even feeling any necessity to cite as to what has been recorded by police in the charge sheet regarding the grant of bail to the accused persons/petitioners,” Justice Chattopadhyay held.**END****Facts of the Case:**- Case registered against the two: February 5, 2019.- Anticipatory bail granted: June 28, 2019.- Charge sheet submitted: June 10, 2024.- Non-bailable warrants issued against the two: November 26, 2024.- The two appealed against it before HC.- Judge quashed the warrants issued and directed the two to appear before the magistrate within three weeks and grant an undertaking that they will abide by the bail conditions. MSID:: 121974105 413