The petitioner herein is the accused in C.P No.85/2014 before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I, Pathanamthitta. The offence involved is under Section 55(i) of the Kerala Abkari Act. On summons issued from the court, he made appearance through counsel, and made application to excuse his absence. His grievance is that the learned Magistrate rejected the application and straight away issued warrant of arrest against him. He apprehends that in case he surrendered, he will be remanded to judicial custody by the learned Magistrate. In such a situation, he seeks a direction to the court below to consider his application for bail, on surrender, and to release him on bail. Of course, the direction as sought by the petitioner cannot be granted by this Court. I do not think that the learned Magistrate will mechanically remand him to judicial custody, without examining the case records. It is not known why warrant of arrest was issued. It is for the learned Magistrate to Crl.M.C No. 6193 of 2014 2 decide whether he can be granted bail or not. It is submitted that he had already made appearance through the counsel and made application to excuse his absence, but the same was not properly considered by the learned Magistrate. Anyway, let him surrender before the learned Magistrate and make application for bail.
In the result, this Criminal Miscellaneous Case is closed with direction to the trial court, that in case application for bail is submitted by the petitioner in C.P No.85/2014, the same shall be judiciously considered, and decided on the date of surrender itself, however with notice to the learned Assistant Public Prosecutor.
P.UBAID JUDGE ab