A full bench of High Court decided on September 12th, 2020 that the benefit of Section 436-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure can be extended only for the under-trial prisoner and not the convict who has challenged his conviction under Section 374 of the same Code of Criminal Procedure. A division bench of High Court had posed this question after realising that it comes under general importance and that the question had arisen in several criminal matters. The Nagpur Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta, Justice RK Deshpande and Justice SB Shukre answered the question through this decision.

The question arose in a case where one Mr. Maksud Sheikh filed an application against his conviction, seeking bail. Sheikh was convicted on August 1, 2016 for several offences under the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, 2002.