India, July 3 -- The Supreme Court on Friday refused to send murder accused Sonam Raghuvanshi back to jail, despite expressing serious reservations over the Meghalaya high court's decision to grant her bail in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case. Hearing the Meghalaya government's appeal against the June 29 bail order, a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu said it was mindful of the settled legal principle that "bail is the rule and jail is the exception", even in cases involving grave allegations.

"We are conscious of the fact that she was in incarceration for a while. We know that bail is the rule and jail is the exception. Regardless of how heinous the crime is, we will try to think of a balanced approach," the bench observed. ...