Offence,"Cognizable or non-
cognizable","Bailable or non-
bailable",By what court triable
If  punishable  with  death,
imprisonment  for  life,  or
imprisonment for more than
7 years",Cognizable.,Non- bailable.,Court of Session.
If   punishable   with imprisonmentÂ
for 3 years, and upwards butÂ
not more
than 7 years",Ditto,Ditto,Magistrate of the first class.
If   punishable   with
imprisonment for less than 3 years or with
fine only.",Non- cognizable.,Bailable.,Any Magistrate
13. Section 21 of POCSO Act makes contravention of section 19 and section 20 of the Act to be punishable. A perusal of the provisions of the,,,
POCSO Act reveals that the statute does not, by itself, declare section 21 to be a non-bailable offence. As mentioned earlier, when there is no",,,
reference in the statute treating a particular offence as bailable or non-bailable, reliance has to be placed on the Schedule to the Cr.P.C. A reading of",,,
the Schedule to Cr.P.C. extracted above evidences that if, under other laws, the offence is punishable with imprisonment for less than three years or",,,
with fine only, the offence is bailable and non-cognizable. It is thus evident that section 21 of the POCSO Act, which provides for a punishment of six",,,
months or a maximum of one year, is a bailable offence.",,,
14. It is also elementary that an application for anticipatory bail is not maintainable when the offence is bailable. In cases where the offence alleged is,,,
only bailable, bail is a right, and it cannot be denied. In such circumstances, application for anticipatory bail is not maintainable as an accused, if",,,
arrested for a bailable offence, the investigating officer has to mandatorily release him on bail.",,,
15. Since the petitioners are alleged to have committed only a bailable offence, the question of apprehension of arrest does not even arise and",,,
therefore, this bail application is dismissed.",,,
