The Supreme Court on Tuesday cancelled the bail granted to an accused due to a high possibility of repeat offences and laid down the guidelines to be followed by the high courts while deciding the bail pleas. The SC’s eight criteria to be taken into account by the high courts are:

#Whether there are prima facie or reasonable grounds to believe that the accused has committed the offence.

# Nature and gravity of the accusation.

# Severity of the punishment in the event of conviction.

# Danger of the accused absconding, if released on bail.

# Character, behaviour and standing of accused including his/ her antecedents.

# Likelihood of the offence being repeated.

# Reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being influenced.

# Danger of justice being affected for grant of bail.

The person in question was accused of murder. A Supreme Court bench of Justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Mukesh R Shah held that if the accused is released on bail, he will pose a threat to the safety of the appellant and the probability of a repeat offence was also high.

“Considering the overall facts and circumstances, we have held that the high court has committed grave error in releasing the accused on bail. Consequently, the high court order is quashed and set aside. Respondent No. 1 is directed to surrender and be taken back into custody,” the court ordered.