The gravity of the offense alone cannot be a ground to reject a bail petition.

By -Abhishek Singh, Banaras Hindu University

Madhya Pradesh High Court in its recent observations regarding a Juvenile observed that the mere gravity of the offense is not a ground for rejecting a bail petition rather it acts in consortium with other factors to decide the preliminary guilt of the accused. The honorable Justice Dinesh Kumar Paliwal through the bench opined that the depravity of the Mind of the accused is much more relevant in deciding the bail petitions and with reference to the provisions of bail in the Juvenile Justice Act held that bail to juvenile is not a “must” in all cases as it can be denied by assigning proper reasons.
Thus, the law does not say that once a person is found juvenile, he should be released on bail notwithstanding the other facts and circumstances of the matter.