Anticipatory bail is a pre-arrest bail, an order of the court directing that, if the applicant is arrested on a specific accusation, they shall be released on bail on prescribed conditions. Governed by Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS, 2023), previously Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, anticipatory bail is one of the most-litigated provisions in Indian criminal law.
Eligibility: available to any person who has reason to believe they may be arrested for a non-bailable offence. Courts competent to grant anticipatory bail are the Sessions Court and the High Court; Magistrate courts do not have this jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has anticipatory bail jurisdiction in exceptional cases.
Factors the court weighs: nature and gravity of the accusation; antecedents of the applicant; possibility of absconding; possibility of tampering with evidence or intimidating witnesses; reasonable apprehension of arrest; larger public interest. The Supreme Court's decisions in *Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia* (1980) and later refinements shape the discretion; anticipatory bail is neither automatic nor unreasonable to grant.
Conditions typically imposed: cooperation with the investigation; not leaving the jurisdiction without court permission; not tampering with evidence; undertaking to attend any summons; surety bond; in appropriate cases, deposit of passport.
Anticipatory bail is time-limited in some circumstances (the SC's view in *Sushila Aggarwal* clarified that ABs are not automatically time-limited but can be conditioned as the court sees fit). Applications are usually urgent, drafted and argued within days of the apprehended arrest.
