IS ANTICIPATORY BAIL AVAILABLE WHEN A COMPLAINT IS NOT REGISTERED?
Registration of an FIR is not mandatory for a person to approach the court of law for an order of anticipatory Bail. There are various citations of Supreme Court and High Courts in this regard. Even in the absence of a pending criminal complaint against a person, if such person has an apprehension of arrest, he can approach the Sessions court or High court for an order of Anticipatory Bail. The apprehension of arrest may be elicited from the facts and circumstances of the matter, conduct of respondent police, the acts and communications of the potential complainant etc. On the whole, the applicant must convince the court, primarily that there is every likelihood for a criminal complaint to be lodged against him and the probability of respondent police arresting him based on the said complaint.
An applicant cannot expect a blanket order from the court granting Anticipatory Bail. The applicant need to specify in his application the probable sections under which his opponent may file a complaint against him, which is even more difficult in comparison to a scenario where the complaint is already registered against him. This is because, if a complaint is already registered against the applicant, then the applicant as well as the court, both are convinced as to what are the sections which constitute the alleged offence. However in a case where the FIR is not yet registered, it is left to the mental exercise of both the applicant as well as the court to figure out the probable offence.
The requirement of spelling out the exact provisions of the offence in an application for Anticipatory Bail may cause a technical difficulty for the applicant. For instance if a court grants anticipatory bail to an applicant for an offence punishable under certain penal sections, his opponent can still trap him by lodging a complaint under some other sections. This dilutes the effect of the result got by the applicant. However the applicant is entitled to file for a fresh anticipatory bail and the obtainment of previous anticipatory bail will definitely be a plus factor while considering the second bail application.
Similarly in matters where the FIR is not yet registered, courts have a tendency to grant anticipatory bail for limited periods like 45 days, 60 days etc. This again puts the applicant into some inconvenience, as his opponent may wait for the period to elapse for filing a complaint against him. In such a scenario the applicant can file one more application and obtain an anticipatory bail. The earlier anticipatory bail will definitely assist him in the obtainment of a new anticipatory bail.