The Supreme Court has questioned the Enforcement Directorate over filing of supplementary charge sheets to deny default bail for an accused, and to keep such persons in jail for an indefinite period. A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta told the central agency this practice – of effectively keeping accused in jail without a trial – troubled the top court.

“The whole object of default bail is that you do not arrest (an accused) till the investigation is complete. You cannot (arrest an accused and) say the trial will not commence till investigation is not complete. You cannot keep filing supplementary charge sheets and then the person is in jail without a trial,” Justice Khanna told Additional Solicitor-General SV Raju, who was appearing for the ED.

“In this case, the person is behind bars for 18 months. This is bothering us. In some case we will take it up and we are putting you to notice in that. Trial has to be begin when you arrest an accused,” the court said Wednesday.

Under current laws an arrested individual is eligible for default bail if the authorities are unable to complete the investigation, or file a final charge sheet, within timelines set by the CrPC, or Code of Criminal Procedure. This time period is either 60 or 90 days, depending on case circumstances.