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A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was considering the legal question whether an accused in custody in another criminal case is entitled to apply for bail before his arrest.

“An accused is entitled to provisional release unless he is arrested in connection with this offence. If he is arrested in this case too, the only remedy is to apply for regular bail,” Justice Pardiwala said while delivering the verdict.

The judgment was issued on a petition filed by a certain Dhanraj Aswani in 2023, who raised this issue.

“There is no explicit or implicit restriction prohibiting a court or the Supreme Court from granting interim bail to an accused person while he is in custody for another offence. This would be contrary to the intention of the legislature…” the ruling states.

“Detention in one case does not mean that the risk of arrest is eliminated in another case,” the statement said.