Bail may be granted under Excise Act where charge-sheet is filed and criminal antecedents are duly explained.

The applicant, Dhanaram Yadav, was arrested on January 7, 2026, following a police raid based on secret information that led to the seizure of 10 litres of handmade liquor from his possession

He was charged under Section 34(2) of the Chhattisgarh Excise Act in Crime No. 03/2026 at Police Station Saragaon

The applicant moved the High Court for regular bail, contending false implication and noting that while he had three previous disposed-of criminal cases and one pending excise case, the charge-sheet in the present matter had already been filed

1. Whether the applicant is entitled to the grant of regular bail under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, considering the nature of the offence and the period of incarceration

The Court applied Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, governing the High Court's power to grant bail

Section 34(2) of the Chhattisgarh Excise Act, which prescribes a punishment ranging from one to three years

procedural compliance under the BNSS, specifically Section 269 (non-appearance), Section 84 (proclamation for person absconding), Section 209 (failure to appear in violation of proclamation), and Section 351 (recording of statement)

The Court examined the gravity of the allegations alongside the procedural status of the case. It noted that the investigation was effectively complete as the charge-sheet had already been filed

The Court balanced the applicant’s criminal antecedents—which were explained via a covering memo—against the fact that he had been in judicial custody since early January 2026

Given that the maximum sentence for the offence is three years and the trial was expected to take a considerable amount of time, the Court determined that continued pretrial detention was unnecessary, provided stringent conditions were imposed to ensure the applicant's presence during trial

The holding is contingent upon strict conditions: the applicant must not seek unnecessary adjournments, must be present for all key trial stages (framing of charges and Section 351 BNSS statements), and any violation regarding appearance will be treated as an abuse of liberty under Sections 209 and 269 of the BNS/BNSS