Repeated anticipatory bail pleas reduce legal process to ‘mere gamble’: Supreme Court  

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the Madras High Court granting anticipatory bail to a man and his wife, accused of cheating his 75-year-old mother in a multi-crore property transaction case, observing that repeated bail pleas filed in quick succession reduce the legal process to a 'mere gamble' and amount to abuse of process.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K. Vinod Chandran allowed an appeal filed by the complainant Vasantha, challenging the Madras High Court order granting anticipatory bail to her son Karthikeyan Manikandan and daughter-in-law Vasupradha.

Describing the dispute as a "sordid saga of a mother accusing her son and daughter-in-law of cheating her", the apex court found that the allegations disclosed serious financial irregularities and exploitation of a senior citizen.

According to the FIR registered at Trichy City Police Station in May 2025 under Sections 406 and 420 of the IPC and Section 24 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, the complainant alleged that the accused induced her to transfer family properties and subsequently misappropriated the proceeds from the sale of land.

The complainant stated that she was made to believe that around 11.33 acres of land had been sold at Rs 85 lakh per acre and that approximately Rs 9.65 crore was credited into a bank account opened in her name. However, she alleged that the amount was withdrawn by the accused persons.

She further alleged that she later discovered the land had actually been sold at Rs 2.75 crore per acre and that nearly Rs 22 crore had allegedly been paid separately to the accused.

The FIR also alleged that she was made to transfer her house to her son on the promise of being maintained, but was eventually driven out and rendered homeless.

The anticipatory bail pleas filed by the accused before the Sessions Court in Tiruchirapalli were rejected in July 2025. Their subsequent plea before the Madras High Court was also dismissed on August 4, 2025, with the High Court observing that custodial interrogation was necessary as the investigation was at a preliminary stage. However, within a month, the accused filed a fresh anticipatory bail plea before another Bench of the High Court and secured relief on September 15, 2025.

Taking exception to this approach, the apex court observed that the Madras High Court failed to even note that an earlier bail plea had been rejected by another Bench just weeks earlier.