Bombay high court denies pre-arrest bail to judge in bribery case

The Supreme Court has expressed dismay over rejection of bail pleas by trial courts in "not very serious cases" despite the completion of investigations.

A bench comprising justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday said a democratic country must not function like a police state, where law enforcement agencies exercise arbitrary powers to detain individuals without genuine necessity.

It observed that two decades ago, bail pleas in smaller cases rarely reached the high courts, let alone the top court.