Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code contains a new provision enabling superior Courts to direct the release of a person on bail prior to his arrest, which is commonly known as anticipatory bail. There was no express provision for anticipatory bail in the old Criminal Procedure Code. The Law Commission, while recommending the introduction of this provision in the present Code, observed as follows : “Though there is a conflict of judicial opinion on the power of a Court to grant anticipatory bail, the majority view is that there is no such power under the existing provision of the (old) Code. The necessity for granting anticipatory bail arises mainly because sometimes influential persons try to implicate their rivals in false cases, for the purpose of disgracing them, or for other purposes by getting them detained in jail for some days. In recent times, with this accentuation of political rivalry, this tendency is showing sings of steady increase. Apart fr ....