Default bail: section 187 BNSS, UAPA's 180-day extension and Article 21
Why in news: On 21 October 2026, the J&K and Ladakh High Court held that a continuing probe into terror links did not make a UAPA chargesheet incomplete.
Default bail is an accused person's right to release when police fail to file a chargesheet within 60 or 90 days, under section 187(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The UAPA lets a court extend the 90-day period up to 180 days. On 21 October 2026, the J&K and Ladakh High Court refused it to three UAPA accused.
Syllabus: GS2 · Constitution; Prelims · Polity & Governance; GS2 · Executive & Judiciary
Why this matters for UPSC
GS2 polity: Article 21 and criminal procedure; GS3 internal security: special laws such as the UAPA. Prelims can ask the 60/90-day limits in section 187 BNSS and the UAPA's 180-day extension; Mains, liberty versus security in terror cases.
In short
Default bail is an accused person's right to release when the investigating agency misses the legal deadline for a chargesheet; the Supreme Court treats it as part of Article 21.
Default bail must stay a hard deadline on custody without charge; special laws may extend it only on tested reasons and with speedy trials.
Why it matters
A person arrested on suspicion can wait in jail for months before any trial begins. Default bail sets a deadline on that wait: if the police cannot finish the probe and file a chargesheet in time, the person walks out on bail, however serious the charge. Under anti-terror law the wait can run to six months, and its strict bail rules make this deadline one of the few routes out. The High Court's ruling shows the other side: an agency may keep probing wider links after filing, so long as its case against the accused is complete. The larger question is how long the state may hold someone it has not yet charged.
Prelims pointers
- Section 187(2) BNSS: police custody of up to 15 days may be taken in parts, at any time within the first 40 or 60 days of detention.
- Explanation I to section 187 BNSS: even after the limit expires, the accused stays in custody until bail is actually furnished.
- Hitendra Vishnu Thakur (1994), under TADA: once the default occurs, the gravity of the offence or character of the accused cannot be weighed to refuse it.
- Sanjay Dutt (Constitution Bench): the indefeasible right is enforceable only from the default until the chargesheet is filed, if not availed of earlier.
- Uday Mohanlal Acharya, followed in M. Ravindran: the right is availed of the moment the accused applies and offers to furnish bail.
- UAPA section 43D(5): no bail for offences in Chapters IV and VI if the court finds reasonable grounds that the accusation is prima facie true.
- NDPS Act section 36A(4): for offences under sections 19, 24 or 27A or involving commercial quantity, 90 days reads as 180, extendable to one year.
- Shaurya Sunil Kumar Singh v CBI (1 July 2026): section 193(8) BNSS on extra chargesheet copies is directory; missing copies do not earn default bail.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to default bail under section 187 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, consider the following statements:
1. Custody before a chargesheet may run up to 90 days where the offence is punishable with imprisonment of ten years or more.
2. For all other offences, custody before a chargesheet may run up to 120 days.
3. Default bail is granted because the chargesheet was not filed in time, not on the merits of the case.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only
Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only. The limits are 90 and 60 days, and the release rests on the agency's default.
Statement 1: correct. Section 187(3) BNSS sets 90 days for offences punishable with death, life imprisonment or ten years or more.
Statement 2: incorrect. For any other offence the ceiling is 60 days, not 120 days.
Statement 3: correct. The Supreme Court holds that default bail is not a release on merits but follows the failure to file the chargesheet in time.
Eliminate: Statement 2 is wrong because the second limit is 60 days. Out: (a), (b), (d).
Trap: Near-miss figure. 120 days looks plausible because some State amendments to the old CrPC used it, but the BNSS ceiling is 60 days.
Remember: 90 days for grave offences, 60 for the rest; the default, not the evidence, earns the bail.
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