Supreme Court asks courts to defer pleas for default bail based on Ritu Chhabaria judgment after Central government seeks recall of verdict

Supreme Court on Monday agreed to constitute a three-judge bench to hear Central government's application seeking the recall of a top court verdict wherein it had ruled that an accused will be entitled to default bail if an incomplete chargesheet is filed by the investigating agency [Director of Enforcement vs Manpreet Singh Talwar]..The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala also ordered that in the event that any other applications have been filed before any other court on the basis of the judgment of which recall is sought, they shall be deferred beyond May 4.A bench of Justices Krishna Murari and CT Ravikumar had, on April 26, ruled in the case of Ritu Chhabaria v. Union of India that default bail under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is an important right and it cannot be scuttled by filing chargesheets before the probe is complete .The Justice Murari led bench stressed that the right of default bail was not merely a statutory right but a fundamental one that flows from Article 21 of the Constitution.Hence, chargesheet cannot be filed before completing investigation only to deprive the accused person of default bail, the Court underlined.However, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta made an urgent mentioning before the CJI-led bench on Monday stating that several cases are being filed based on this judgment.The government also filed an application for recall of the Ritu Chhabaria judgment contending that it is per incuriam since it "failed to even consider the prior binding decision of a co-equal bench in Dinesh Dalmia which lays down a contrary principle of law, which has held the field for the past 16 years".In Dinesh Dalmia case, the Supreme Court had held that the Court which had taken cognizance of the offence may exercise its power to grant police custody during further investigation subject to the fulfillment of the requirements and the limitation of Section 167(2) CrPC.The CJI bench while agreeing to hear the plea ordered all courts to defer applications based on the judgment..The Central government's plea was filed through Advocates Zoheb Hossain, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Kanu Agrawal, Ankit Bhatia and Vivek Gurnani. The plea was argued by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju. .[Read Order]