Anoopam Prasad

We are not trained to think of it as part of the job; law school teaches you the CrPC (now, the BNSS), how to read a statute, how to oppose bail. Yet, nobody teaches you what to say to a person whose savings have vanished in a fraud, or to someone who has to sit on a wooden bench and watch the person who wronged them walk out on anticipatory bail. And yet, that moment - what you say and how you say it - often decides everything.

In 1977, Justice VR Krishna Iyer (then a Judge of the Supreme Court of India), whilst deciding the issue of bail in a particular case, laid down the basic rule of ‘bail, not jail’, except in circumstances where there was a threat of the applicant fleeing from justice, thwarting justice, intimidating witnesses, or repeating an offence.

In 1977, Justice VR Krishna Iyer (then a Judge of the Supreme Court of India), whilst deciding the issue of bail in a particular case, laid down the basic rule of ‘bail, not jail’, except in circumstances where there was a threat of the applicant fleeing from justice, thwarting justice, intimidating witnesses, or repeating an offence.