Supreme Court weekly/monthly round-ups this year repeatedly feature orders granting bail, or directing trial courts to consider bail, to undertrials who have already spent a substantial part of their potential sentence in custody while trial remains stalled. The common thread is BNSS Section 479, which requires release of undertrials who have served one-half (or, for first-time offenders, one-third) of the maximum sentence for the offence, subject to exceptions for offences punishable with death/life imprisonment and multi-accused cases.
Section 479 replaces CrPC Section 436A (2005) and operationalises Article 21's right to a speedy trial and against indefinite pre-conviction detention, alongside Article 22's safeguards against arbitrary arrest. Failure of trial courts/High Courts to apply it is treated as a fundamental rights violation remediable via Article 226 (High Courts) or Article 32 (Supreme Court), not mere procedural error. Sections 478, 480, 482 and 483 form the surrounding bail architecture.
Exam takeaway: remember BNSS Section 479 (successor to CrPC 436A), its 1/2 and 1/3 detention thresholds, its constitutional linkage to Article 21/22, and the enforcement route via Articles 226/32 when jails/courts fail to apply it.