Bail bond, Surety and Personal Bond.
Bond
A person in custody, who is ordered to be released, is always ordered to execute a bond undertaking to appear in court and./or to participate in investigation as and when required. The bond contains a penalty or forfeiture clause that if there is a default, the executant(accused) shall pay the specified amount to the court.
Surety
The court while releasing an arrested person may, in addition to aforesaid Bond may also order that one or two sureties may also execute such bond. These persons standing sureties have to be respectable people who have the net worth to pay the amount of surety bond in case the bailed out person flee from justice.
A surety must also declare to the court about the total number of cases and accused persons he/she has stood as surety. By Amending Act of 2005 following section 441-A has been inserted in Code of Criminal Procedure:
" 441A. Declaration by sureties.– Every person standing surety to an accused person for his release on bail, shall make a declaration before the Court as to the number of persons to whom he has stood surety including the accused, giving therein all the relevant particulars."
Form of Bond
The Bail Bond as well as the Surety Bond has been given together in Form No. 45 of Schedule II of Cr.P.C.
It is not required by any provision of the Code of Criminal Procedure that all the sureties should execute the bond printed at the back of the form on which the accused execute the personal bond or that the accused must execute as many bonds in identical terms as there are surety bonds by individual sureties. The mere fact that Form prints the contents of the two bonds, one to be executed by the accused and the other by the surety, together, does not mean that both these bonds should be on the same sheet of paper.
Bekaru Singh vs. State of U.P., AIR 1963 SC 430: 1963 (1) SCR 55: 1963 Cr. L.J. 335.
Thus both the arrested person and the surety can execute separate bonds on two separate sheets of paper.
Jumping bail
The consequence of failure to appear in court after being granted for bail was earlier two fold. A warrant of arrest was issued and surety bond was forfeited after notice to surety. Now jumping bail is also an offence punishable with imprisonment upto one year. By Amendment of 2005 a new section 229-A in Code of Criminal Procedure which is as under:
"229A. Failure by person released on bail or bond to appear in Court.- Whoever, having been charged with an offence and released on bail or on bond without sureties, fails without sufficient cause (the burden of proving which shall lie upon him), to appear in Court in accordance with the terms of the bail or bond, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
Explanation.– The punishment under this section is–
(a) in addition to the punishment to which the offender would be liable on a conviction for the offence with which he has been charged; and
(b) without prejudice to the power of the Court to order forfeiture of the bond."
The aforesaid provision is applicable only if accused person appears or is arrested by police on the basis of warrant of arrest issued by court. In case the accused does not appear and warrant of arrest remains unexecuted, the court is duty bound to pronounce such person as a proclaimed offender and continue with the trial in absentia. If the accused person apprehended after proclamation of being an proclaimed offender he punishable for imprisonment upto seven years under
174A. Non- appearance in response to a proclamation under section 82 of Act 2 of 1974 .– Whoever fails to appear at the specified place and the specified time as required by a proclamation published under sub- section (1) of section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine or with both, and where a declaration has been made under sub- section (4) of that section pronouncing him as a proclaimed offender, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine."
Thus jumping bail entails incarcerations for periods upto 1 year, 3 years and 7 years depending upon the stage at which accused is arrested by police or appears before court. Of course an accused who has jumped bail is entitled to be heard in accordance with principles of natural justice and explain to the court that his disappearance was involuntary or that he could not appear earlier due to reasons beyond his/her control; for example grave illness, etc.
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