BAIL - Not Defined - Hunch of the Bench?
JUSTICE Krishna Iyer remarked, "..... belongs to the blurred area of criminal justice system and largely hinges on the hunch of the bench, otherwise called judicial discretion. The Code is cryptic on this topic and the Court prefers to be tacit, be the order custodial or not. And yet, the issue is one of liberty, justice, public safety and burden of public treasury all of which insist that a developed jurisprudence of bail is integral to a socially sensitised judicial process."
Though ‘bail' is not defined in any statute, the Cr.PC defines, ‘bailable offence and non bailable offence'.
It is thus left to an individual Act to specify whether an offence is bailable or not and the latest and highest judicial view is that an offence under Customs or Central Excise, is bailable – that is the officer making the arrest should release the arrested person on bail.
Don't rush to arrest – until you change the law!