Overview
- The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal on July 1, 2026, upholding the Bombay High Court’s finding that failing to supply extra copies of a chargesheet is not a ground for default bail under Section 187(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.
- The bench, led by Justices Sanjay Karol and N K Singh, held that a chargesheet filed in the form required by Section 193(3) within the statutory 60/90-day period extinguishes the statutory right to default bail even if additional copies required by Section 193(8) were not filed or supplied on time.
- The case arose from a CBI probe into an alleged Rs 3.81 crore cyber-fraud and mule-account racket; the accused was arrested in July 2025, the CBI filed its chargesheet on September 2, 2025, and a copy was supplied to the accused on September 23, 2025.
- The Court made clear that procedural lapses in furnishing supporting documents do not vitiate a timely chargesheet and that accused persons remain free to apply for regular bail, which courts must decide on its own merits.
- The judgment preserves longstanding CrPC-era law that default bail is tied to the non-filing of a chargesheet and not to later failures in document supply, a distinction that will shape defence strategy and investigative practice in complex probes such as cybercrime.