I have been in judicial custody for over sixty days in a case where the maximum punishment is less than ten years. The Kolkata Police have not yet filed a chargesheet. Am I entitled to default bail and what is the procedure to apply for it before the Magistrate?
If you've been in custody in Kolkata and the police haven't filed a chargesheet within the prescribed time, you have a powerful and often underused right: default bail, also called statutory bail, under Section 167(2) CrPC, now carried forward under Section 187 BNSS. This provision exists to ensure investigation doesn't drag on indefinitely while a person sits in jail without formal charges being framed. For most offences, the chargesheet must be filed within 60 days of arrest, while for offences punishable with death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment of ten years or more, the period extends to 90 days.
The important thing to understand is that default bail is a right, not a discretionary favour from the court, and if the chargesheet has genuinely not been filed within this period, the court is bound to grant bail if the accused applies for it and is prepared to furnish bail, provided the application is made before the chargesheet is actually filed. Courts in Kolkata have consistently upheld this principle, following Supreme Court precedent that even a delay of a single day beyond the statutory period entitles the accused to default bail if claimed promptly.
There is one important nuance: if the chargesheet gets filed even a day before your default bail application is moved, the right to default bail is extinguished, even though your delay claim may have been perfectly valid until that point. This makes timing absolutely critical, and your advocate needs to track the exact date of arrest and calculate the deadline precisely, filing the application the moment the statutory period expires without waiting.
Because this right can be lost through even a minor delay in filing, it is important to have someone actively monitoring your case timeline from the day of arrest. The team at Aapka Legal Advice can track these statutory deadlines closely and ensure your default bail application is filed the moment you become eligible.
If you or a family member is in custody in Kolkata and the investigation is dragging on, don't miss this window. Contact experienced criminal lawyers in Kolkata immediately to check whether the statutory period has expired and to file for default bail without delay.