A division bench of Supreme Court held that criminal proceedings cannot be converted into recovery proceedings.
Shane George Dsouza Vs State of NCT of Delhi on 04 Oct 2023This Court has repeatedly held that the condition of deposit of such amount cannot be a condition of bail. In this case, the appellant had not volunteered to deposit the sum of Rs.10,00,000/- (Rupees ten lakhs). The direction in the order dated 18th January, 2023 is not only of imposing a condition on the appellant of bringing a sum of Rs.10,00,000/- (Rupees ten lakhs) to the Trial Court but a permission has been granted to release the amount to the victim. It is a settled law that criminal proceedings cannot be converted into recovery proceedings.
Hence, in the facts of the case, there was no justification for imposing the condition of deposit of Rs.10,00,000/- (Rupees ten lakhs). Accordingly, the appeal must succeed and we set aside clause (a) of the operative part of the order dated 18th January, 2023 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge-05, New Delhi District, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi. The rest of the conditions shall remain as it is.
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