The Supreme Court on Monday (June 23, 2025) objected to the “trend” of accused persons gaining bail by voluntarily offering to pay considerable sums of money, especially in tax evasion and financial fraud cases, as a sign of their bona fides, only to later renege payment to the court.
A Bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and N. Kotiswar Singh said these persons would approach the courts again, seeking exemption from making the payment by either claiming the bail condition to be stringent or blaming their lawyers for acting without their authority.
Justice Viswanathan orally observed that the courts had become frequent witnesses to this ploy in recent times.
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“We cannot allow parties to play ducks and drakes with the court… We cannot permit parties to take advantage of a device resorted by them to secure orders of release,” the Bench noted.
