Toolkit Case: Nikita Jacob, Shantanu Muluk Hopeful For Bail; Disha Ravi’s Case Raises Argument On ‘Bail Is A Right’

The Delhi Police had arrested Bengaluru-based activist Disha Ravi while Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk were granted pre-arrest bail by Bombay High Court. Muluk has got relief by the Delhi court till March 9 as the Delhi Police required more time to file their reply.

The bail to Bengaluru activist Disha Ravi has opened gates for advocate Nikita Jacob and engineer Shantanu Muluk. The Delhi Police probing the 'toolkit Google doc' backing the farmers agitation shared by Greta Thunberg, had arrested Bengaluru-based activist Disha Ravi while Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk were granted pre-arrest bail by Bombay High Court.

Muluk has got relief by the Delhi court till March 9 as the Delhi Police required more time to file their reply.

The recent judgement in the case of Disha Ravi has been welcomed by many senior lawyers too. Former Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi on the judgement said, "It is a courageous decision by a District judge. Higher courts should learn from this. And if I may say so with great respect to the judiciary, the High Courts and Supreme Court have been lagging on this front.

They have allowed this kind of non-grant of bail to kind of become a punishment. He also lamented that the entire jurisprudence surrounding bail has been turned on its head in the last few years with the courts, particularly the High Courts and Supreme Court showing reluctance to grant bail."

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana of the Patiala House Court granted bail to activist Disha Ravi on February 23 in the toolkit FIR case on account of 'scanty and sketchy evidence' against her. Rohatgi heaped praises on the bail order stating that it is a courageous and bold decision.

Niraj Gupta, a lawyer in Bombay High Court, said "Supreme Court has said that "Bail is a rule, Jail is an exception". But there have been several cases in recent past where the accused have been denied bail even after the chargesheet has been filed and there is no need of them being in the custody."

Senior advocate in Bombay High court, Nisha Arora said, "Infact there have been cases of default bail too, where the police has not filed chargesheet on time and then too the bail has been denied to the accused. Even undertrials have been denied bail for long."

Since this debate emerged once again and there are thousands of bail applications pending in the High Courts and the Supreme Court, the recent order is likely to be sought by many in the coming days.