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.