Kiran v. Rajkumar Jivraj Jain 2025 INSC 1067 - CrPC - Anticipatory Bail - SC-ST Act

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 - Section 438 ; Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 - Section 3,18,18A -Bar against grant of anticipatory bail in absolute terms in relations to the arrest of a person who faces specific accusations of having committed the offence under the SC-ST Act- The benefit of anticipatory bail for such an accused is taken off - In a given case where on the face of it the offence under Section 3 of the Act is found to have not been made out and that the accusations relating to the commission of such offence are devoid of prima facie merits, the Court has a room to exercise the discretion to grant anticipatory bail to the accused under Section 438 of the Code.- Non-making of prima facie case about the commission of offence is perceived to be such a situation where the Court can arrive at such a conclusion in the first blush itself or by way of the first impression upon very reading of the averments in the FIR. The contents and the allegations in the FIR would be decisive in this regard. Furthermore, in reaching a conclusion as to whether a prima facie offence is made out or not, it would not be permissible for the Court to travel into the evidentiary realm or to consider other materials, nor the Court could advert to conduct a mini trial. (Para 6.1-2)

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 - Section 3 - If the offence is committed outside the building, for example in the lawn outside the house, and the lawn can be seen by someone from the road or lawn outside the boundary wall, then the lawn would certainly be a place within the public view -[Context: In this case, the incident took place outside the house of the complainant which could be viewed by anybody, SC held that it is was a place within public view.]