Sparsh Upadhyay

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday reiterated that an accused who has been declared a proclaimed offender after deliberately evading court and investigation is ordinarily not entitled to the extraordinary relief of anticipatory bail.

Setting aside a 2011 trial court conviction in a kidnapping case, a bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi ruled that since Section 164 CrPC statement is not recorded in the presence of the accused, he has no opportunity to cross-examine the witness and hence, it can't be relied upon to hold the accused guilty Case in brief An FIR was lodged on March 11, 2009, by a father alleging that his 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped in a Maruti car by the appellant (Lal Babu) and his brother.

A bench of Justice Shekhar B Saraf and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary observed that a rigid application of age restriction under the Law infringes the fundamental right of the reproductive autonomy recognized as a part of personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.