The Supreme Court has determined that a request for the cancellation of bail can be made to the High Court by invoking its powers under Section 439(2) in conjunction with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, even if the Sessions Court has previously denied a cancellation request under Section 439(2).

The Court rejected the argument that once a Sessions Court has declined an application under Section 439(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for bail cancellation, a second application under the same provision cannot be directly presented to the High Court.

A panel consisting of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice AG Masih was reviewing an appeal against a ruling from the Kerala High Court that annulled the bail of the accused.

The appellant contended that after the Sessions Court has turned down the application, the only appropriate action for the aggrieved party would be to either file a revision petition against the Sessions Judge’s ruling or to invoke the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court as per Section 482 CrPC.

Disagreeing with this assertion, the Court observed that in this instance, the application submitted to the High Court was made under Section 482 in conjunction with Section 439(2) CrPC. Thus, there was no restriction preventing the High Court from exercising its inherent powers to evaluate the request.