On Thursday, the Apex Court stayed the bail order granted by High Court of Bombay to DHFL promoters, the Wadhawan brothers—Kapil & Dheeraj—until Oct 7. The Bombay HC had granted them bail in the money laundering case registered against them by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Yes Bank scam.

An SC Bench, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul while staying the Bombay HC’s Aug 20 judgement, said that it would examine the legal issues involved in the Wadhawans’ bail plea.

The HC had granted bail to the Wadhawans on the ground that ED had failed to file its charge sheet within the 60-day stipulated time frame in line with the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The brothers were remanded to custody on May 14 & the 60th day expired on July 12.

Enforcement Directorate had filed its charge sheet on the following day, July 13.

According to section 167 of the CrPC, an accused will be entitled to bail by default, if the investigating authority fails to file charge sheet within 60 days from the date of remand.

The agency contended that the day on which the accused is remanded should be excluded while calculating the 60-day period. However, the Wadhawans’ counsel argued that the 60-day period would start from the day on which the accused were remanded to custody.

Earlier, the HC had ruled in favour of the brothers & had stated that “excluding the first day of remand while computing the period of 60 days cannot be sustained & is liable to be set aside”.

On Thursday, Justice Kaul said that the legal questions relating to the remand period must be examined threadbare.

He said that “There are two issues. The first issue is whether the date on which the accused is remanded should be excluded while computing the 60 days. The second issue is whether weekends (Saturdays & Sundays) should be excluded. These are the issues we would like to examine & interpret".

The Wadhawans had not been released from jail even though the High Court had granted them bail since they are also accused in another case registered by CBI. 

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