Bail order and custody records via RTI

Ramesh's brother was arrested in a property dispute. The family got him out on bail after three weeks in custody, but no one handed them a written bail order. The lawyer said “it is granted”, the court said “ask the registry”, and the registry said “file an application”. Six months later, Ramesh still had no paper proof of when bail was granted, who stood surety, or how many days his brother had actually spent in jail. He needed those records to claim compensation for unlawful detention and to show the employer that the custody was court-ordered, not absconding.

This is the gap most families hit. The order exists on the court file, but nobody gives you a copy unless you ask in the right form. This page explains, in plain steps, how to get bail order copies, the surety bond, and the custody-period log, and when the Right to Information Act is the right tool for the job.

A bail order copy is proof that the court released the person and on what conditions. The surety bond shows who stood guarantee and for how much. The custody-period log shows the exact dates of arrest and release, which is the basis for any claim of compensation for wrongful detention or for counting detention days against sentence. Without these papers, the accused cannot prove compliance with bail conditions, the family cannot claim compensation, and the lawyer cannot move a cancellation or variation application.

The law backing release on bail now sits in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which came into force on 1 July 2024 and replaced the old Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The main bail provisions today are:

1. BNSS §478 — bailable offences (was CrPC §436).
2. BNSS §480 — non-bailable offences bail (was CrPC §437).
3. BNSS §482 — anticipatory bail (was CrPC §438).
4. BNSS §483 — Sessions and High Court special powers to grant bail (was CrPC §439).

There is a savings clause: BNSS §531 keeps the old CrPC alive for FIRs pending before 1 July 2024. So if the FIR in your case was registered before that date, the CrPC sections still apply to the bail question, and you may see the older section numbers on the order itself. For FIRs registered on or after 1 July 2024, BNSS is the governing law.

The Supreme Court settled the order of routes in Chief Information Commissioner v. High Court of Gujarat, (2020) AIR 2020 SC 4333. Where the High Court or the Supreme Court Rules give an effective mechanism for furnishing certified copies of judicial-side records, the RTI Act does not have to be separately resorted to. Court rules that require a third party to state reasons and file an affidavit are not inconsistent with RTI §6(2). In plain words: the court's own certified-copy counter is the preferred channel, and RTI is a backup.

So the ladder is:

1. Step 1 — Certified copy under court rules. Apply at the certified-copy counter of the court that passed the order. Pay the copying fee, file an affidavit if the rules ask for one, and collect the certified copy on the date given. This is usually the fastest path.
2. Step 2 — RTI application. If the certified-copy route is unreasonably delayed, refused without reason, or the registry will not even tell you whether the order exists, file an RTI application to the Public Information Officer of that court. RTI forces a reply within 30 days and creates a paper trail you can escalate.

Where: The Public Information Officer of the court that granted bail. For a Magistrate's order, that is the trial court registry. For a Sessions order, the Sessions Court registry. For a High Court order, the High Court registry. For a Supreme Court order, the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

Form: A plain application in English or the local language, addressed to the Public Information Officer, with your name, address, the case number, the date of order if known, and the list of records you want. There is no statutory form, but many registries have a printed RTI format you can use.

Fee: This is where the old article's blanket “Rs.10 by IPO/cash” was wrong. The fee follows the applicable Court RTI Rules, which differ from court to court. The Supreme Court, for example, charges Rs.10 by Indian Postal Order, Demand Draft, Money Order, or cash in favour of the Registrar or Accounts Officer, Supreme Court of India. Court-fee stamps and cheques are not accepted at the Supreme Court, and Below Poverty Line applicants are exempt. District and trial courts, however, follow the State RTI Rules of the state where the court sits; some require court-fee stamps, some an IPO, some affixing of stamps. Check the specific court's RTI page or ask at the registry counter before you file, so your application is not returned for the wrong fee mode.

Deadline: The Public Information Officer must reply within 30 days. If the matter involves a third party's rights, the limit extends to 40 days. If you hear nothing, or the reply is wrong, you have the right to appeal.

Ask for these, one per line, each tied to the case number:

1. Bail order copy — the operative order granting or refusing bail, with the date and the judge's name.
2. Surety bond — the bond filed by the surety, showing the amount and the conditions.
3. Custody-period log — the court's record of arrest date, remand dates, and release date, so you can count the days.
4. Cancellation or variation orders — if bail was later cancelled or modified, ask for those orders too.
5. Next hearing schedule — the date fixed for the next proceeding, if you need to track the case.

Be specific. A vague “give me all papers” invites a vague refusal. A numbered list tied to case details is harder to reject.

To: The Public Information Officer,
[Court name — District and Sessions Court / High Court / Supreme Court]

Subject: Application under §6 of the RTI Act, 2005 — Bail and custody records

Case No. [____] of [year]
Title: [Accused name] vs [State / Complainant]
Date of order, if known: [____]

Furnish the following information:

1. Certified copy of the bail order passed in the above case.
2. The surety bond filed by the surety, with the bond amount and conditions.
3. The custody-period log showing arrest date, remand dates, and release date.
4. Any order cancelling or varying the bail, if passed.
5. The date fixed for the next hearing.

Fee of Rs. [amount as per the applicable Court RTI Rules] is paid by [IPO / court-fee stamps / cash as the rules require].

[Signature]
[Name, address, phone]

Note: this template asks for the order and the records on file. It does not ask the judge to explain the reasoning. That is a line the RTI Act does not let you cross.

The settled bar comes from Khanapuram Gandaiah v. Administrative Officer, (2010) 2 SCC 1 / AIR 2010 SC 615, decided on 4 January 2010. The Supreme Court held that a judge's reasoning is not “information” under RTI §2(f). What is disclosable is the orders and the materials on record. If a party is aggrieved by the reasoning, the remedy is an appeal or revision, not an RTI demanding reasons. The special leave petition in that matter, SLP(C) 34868 of 2009, was dismissed as per se illegal.

In plain terms: you can get the bail order, the bond, the custody log. You cannot force the court, through RTI, to write out a fresh explanation of why bail was granted or refused. If you disagree with the reasons, your remedy is an appeal in the case itself, not an RTI.

The reason these records matter to families like Ramesh's goes back to Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar, decided on 9 March 1979 by Justices Bhagwati and Desai under Article 32. The case recognised the right to free legal aid and a speedy trial under Article 21. The correct citations are (1980) 1 SCC 98 / AIR 1979 SC 1369. The old “1979 3 SCC 532” form that floated around earlier drafts is a miscitation; the 532 figure belongs to the 1979 SCR (3) 532 (Supreme Court Reports) series, not the SCC. If you cite the case in an application or a complaint, use the correct SCC number.

This matters because the custody-period log you get through RTI is often the only proof of how long a person was held without a hearing. That is the document that turns a general “speedy trial” right into a concrete number of days.

If your bail order came from the Supreme Court, the RTI route is open there too. The Supreme Court is a public authority under RTI §2(h). The position was reinforced in CPIO, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agrawal (2019, Constitution Bench), which held that the Chief Justice's Office is a public authority under RTI, with the §8(1)(j) privacy balance applied to judges' asset declarations and collegium correspondence. The same logic — public authority, with privacy carve-outs — applies when you seek an operational order like a bail order from the Supreme Court registry.

1. Asking for the judge's reasoning. This is barred by Gandaiah. Ask for the order and the records, not the reasons.
2. Skipping the certified-copy route. Under the Gujarat HC ruling, the court's own copy counter is the primary channel. Going straight to RTI, when a certified copy is available at the counter, often gets you a reply telling you to use the counter first.
3. Paying the wrong fee. The Supreme Court takes Rs.10 by IPO/DD/MO/cash but rejects court-fee stamps and cheques. Trial courts follow State RTI Rules and may want court-fee stamps instead. Check first.
4. Filing a vague application. “Give me all documents in the case” gets refused. A numbered list tied to the case number gets answered.
5. Forgetting the BNSS/CrPC split. If the FIR is from before 1 July 2024, the order will cite CrPC sections; if from on or after that date, it will cite BNSS sections. Knowing which set applies helps you read the order correctly.

If the Public Information Officer does not reply within 30 days, or gives a wrong or incomplete answer:

1. First appeal under RTI §19(1) to the First Appellate Authority of the same court, within 30 days of the expiry of the reply period.
2. Second appeal under RTI §19(3) to the Central Information Commission (for Supreme Court and central tribunals) or the State Information Commission (for trial and High Court matters), within 90 days.
3. Complaint under RTI §18 to the Information Commission if there was a refusal without reason or an unreasonable fee demand.
4. Writ under Article 226 to the High Court, or under Article 32 to the Supreme Court, as a last resort where the Commission does not act.

Keep copies of every application, fee receipt, and reply. The paper trail is what makes escalation work.

1. My High Court bail order is delayed. What do I do? File an RTI to the High Court Public Information Officer asking for the certified copy. If the registry says the certified-copy counter should be used, use it, but keep the RTI reply as proof you tried. If the counter is itself slow, the RTI reply gives you a date to escalate from.
2. Can I get the surety bond through RTI? Yes. The bond is a record on the court file, not judicial reasoning, so it falls on the disclosable side of the Gandaiah line. Ask for the bond with the surety's name, the bond amount, and the conditions.
3. The bail was cancelled. Can I get that order? Yes, and you should. Ask for the cancellation order specifically; it is an operative order, disclosable under RTI.
4. Can I appeal a bail-bond cancellation? Yes, through the regular appellate route in the case, not through RTI. RTI gets you the order; the appeal fixes the outcome. Use the bail application guide for the appeal route.
5. Do I cite CrPC or BNSS in my application? Cite the section that matches the FIR date. Pre-1 July 2024 FIR means CrPC §437/§439; on or after that date means BNSS §480/§483. Mentioning the right one shows the registry you know the law.

This page covers bail and custody records. For the full step-by-step method to file any RTI application — drafting the request, paying the right fee, tracking the deadline, and escalating when the reply does not come — see The RTI Playbook. It walks you through every stage with ready-to-use templates.

RTI Wiki is a free, citizen-run resource. If it saved you a trip to the registry or helped you get a document you were owed, consider supporting our work with a small donation so we can keep these guides open and updated.

1. FIR status via RTI — check whether an FIR is registered and its stage.
2. Arrest records via RTI — get the arrest memo and remand papers.
3. Court case records via RTI — the wider guide to certified copies and the Gujarat HC rule.
4. How to file a bail application in 2026 — the application side, under BNSS.
5. Charge sheet copy via RTI — get the charge sheet once filed.
6. Police process overview — how arrest, FIR, and charge sheet fit together.

1. Khanapuram Gandaiah v. Administrative Officer, (2010) 2 SCC 1 / AIR 2010 SC 615 — https://future.indiankanoon.org/doc/1355531/
2. Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar, (1980) 1 SCC 98 / AIR 1979 SC 1369 — https://future.indiankanoon.org/doc/1373215/
3. Supreme Court of India RTI page (fee Rs.10, modes, BPL exemption) — https://www.sci.gov.in/rti/
4. Chief Information Commissioner v. High Court of Gujarat, (2020) AIR 2020 SC 4333 — https://indiankanoon.org/doc/17564850/
5. CrPC to BNSS section mapping table (BNSS §480/§483 replace CrPC 437/439, effective 1 July 2024) — https://jurigram.com/advocates/resources/new-laws/crpc-to-bnss-section-mapping-table
6. CPIO, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agrawal (2019, Constitution Bench) — https://www.sci.gov.in/rti/

Last reviewed: 3 July 2026.