Criminal courts cannot detain foreign nationals on bail: HC

The Kerala High Court has held that criminal courts cannot impose conditions that effectively detain a foreign national at transit or detention centres, after being granted bail.

Such conditions are violative of Article 21 of the Constitution and amount to confining the accused.

The court’s direction came on a writ petition seeking quashing of conditions imposed by a Judicial First Class Magistrate, under which a Bangladesh national who was accused of forging documents was directed to remain in a transit home under civil authority supervision, even after being granted default bail.

The court further held that the right to default bail under Section 167 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code was a fundamental right and not merely a statutory right.