Patna High Court
Gajadhar Sah @ Gaja SahversusThe State of Bihar
- Decided
- Disposal
- ALLOWED
- Bench
- SATYAVRAT VERMA
Holding
The appeal is allowed and provisional anticipatory bail is granted, subject to verification of a clean criminal antecedent.
Summary
The appellants, five residents of Rasulpur Kori village, appealed to the Patna High Court under Section 14A(2) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against an order of the Exclusive Special Judge dated 19‑08‑2025 that had denied them anticipatory bail in a case registered under multiple sections of the Bihar Negotiable Sale Act and the SC/ST Act. The appellants argued that the FIR did not disclose a cognizable offence under the SC/ST Act and that the alleged incident occurred inside the informant's house, not in public view. The State and the informant contended that several of the appellants had prior criminal antecedents and therefore were not entitled to bail. The Court held that the impugned order was unsustainable, set it aside and allowed the appeal, granting provisional anticipatory bail subject to the trial court verifying that the appellants have a clean criminal antecedent. If any antecedent is found, the provisional bail will not be confirmed; otherwise it will be confirmed forthwith.
Issues considered
- Whether the allegations in the FIR constitute an offence punishable under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
- Whether anticipatory bail can be granted under Section 14A(2) of the SC/ST Act in the present circumstances.
- Whether the existence of prior criminal antecedents of the appellants bars the grant of anticipatory bail.
Legislation cited
- Code of Criminal Procedure — s. 482(2)
- Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act — s. 14A(2)
Subjects
- anticipatory bail
- SC/ST Act
- scheduled castes
- scheduled tribes
- criminal antecedent
- section 14A
- section 482
- high court
- bail conditions
Judgment
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
CRIMINAL APPEAL (SJ) No.3780 of 2025
Arising Out of PS. Case No.-350 Year-2025 Thana- GORAUL District- Vaishali
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1. Gajadhar Sah @ Gaja Sah S/o Janak Sah Resident of village- Rasulpur Kori
Gaon, PS- Goroul, Dist- Vaishali
2. Ram Ji Sah S/o Parikshan Sah Resident of village- Rasulpur Kori Gaon, PS-
Goroul, Dist- Vaishali
3. Krishna Mohan Sah @ Lakshaman Sah S/o Bilas Sah Resident of village-
Rasulpur Kori Gaon, PS- Goroul, Dist- Vaishali
4. Ashok Sah S/o Janak Sah Resident of village- Rasulpur Kori Gaon, PS-
Goroul, Dist- Vaishali
5. Pankaj Kumar S/o Ashok Sah Resident of village- Rasulpur Kori Gaon, PS-
Goroul, Dist- Vaishali
... ... Appellant/s
Versus
1. The State of Bihar
2. Savita Devi W/o Shiv Kumar Paswan R/o vill - Rasulpur Korigaon, P.S. -
Goroul, Distt.- Vaishali
... ... Respondent/s
======================================================
Appearance :
For the Appellant/s : Mr.Subhash Kumar, Adv
For the Respondent/s : Mr.Sadanand Paswan, Spl. PP
Ms. Bela Singh, Adv
======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SATYAVRAT VERMA
ORAL ORDER
4 05-05-2026 1. Heard learned counsel for the appellants, learned Spl.
P.P. for the State, Sri Sadanand Pawan, and the learned counsel
appearing on behalf of the informant.
2. The appellants have preferred the present appeal under
Section 14A(2) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act (for short ‘the Act’) against the order
dated 19.08.2025 passed by the learned Exclusive Special Judge
(SC/ST) Act, Vaishali at Hajipur /concerned Court, where the case is
pending in connection with Goroul P.S. Case No. 350 of 2025
registered under Sections 191(2), 191(3), 126(2), 115(2), 118(1), 74,
Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.3780 of 2025(4) dt.05-05-2026
2/3
303(4), 324(4), 351(2) 352(2) of BNS and Sections 3(i)(r)(s) of
SC/ST (POA) Act.
3. Learned counsel for the appellants submits that the
appellants are persons with clean antecedent, on which the learned
counsel appearing on behalf of the informant submits that appellants
have not approached the court with clean hand, it is next submitted
that appellant nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 have antecedent of two cases being
SC/ST PS Case No. 48 of 2025 and Goroul PS Case No. 46 of 2021.
4. Learned counsel for the appellants submits that from
perusal of the allegation as alleged in the FIR, it would manifest that
the informant alleges that accused persons including the appellants
entered his house and abused by taking caste name.
5. Learned counsel for the appellants submits that from
perusal of the allegation as alleged in the FIR, it would manifest that
in the nature of allegation prima facie no offence under the SC/ST
Act is made out and the informant alleges that the occurrence was
committed at his house, thus was not in public view. It is next
submitted that similarly situated co-accused Amod and three others
had approached this Court seeking anticipatory bail by filing Cr.
Appeal (SJ) No. 3775 of 2025 and the same came to be allowed by an
order dated 23-2-2026 passed by a learned Co-ordinate Bench.
6. Learned Spl. P.P. for the State and learned counsel
appearing on behalf of the informant are not in a position to rebut the
said submission of the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the
Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.3780 of 2025(4) dt.05-05-2026
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appellants. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the informant
reiterates and submits that appellant nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 have not
approached the court with clean hands.
7. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, the
impugned order is set aside and the appeal stands allowed with a
condition that the appellants above-named, in the event of their arrest
or surrender within a period of six weeks from today, be released on
provisional anticipatory bail on furnishing bail bonds of Rs. 5,000/-
(Rupees Five Thousand) each with two sureties of the like amount
each to the satisfaction of the learned trial court where the case is
pending/successor court in connection with the aforesaid case,
subject to the conditions as laid down under Section 482 (2) of the
BNSS.
8. Thereafter the learned Trial Court shall verify the
criminal antecedent of the appellants and in the event if it is found
that any of the appellants has antecedent of even one case, in that
event, the provisional anticipatory bail order shall not be confirmed,
but after verification if it is found that appellants are persons with
clean antecedent in that event the provisional anticipatory bail order
shall be confirmed forthwith.
(Satyavrat Verma, J)
Sumit/-
U T
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