Bail confusion

Former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and some associates were accused of killing a blackbuck on the night of June 3, 2005. The police registered a case against them after the carcasses of a blackbuck and two rabbits were found in the car they were travelling in. In the normal course, it would have been difficult for Pataudi to get bail. Jhajjar's chief judicial magistrate Sudhir Jiwan, however, granted bail and was suspended by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, though it did not specify why he was suspended.

Legal experts say this could happen only because the law is not clear about granting bail. On March 29, 2006, it ruled that the magistrate had no power to grant bail. Pataudi surrendered on June 18, after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the high court.