Lucknow, May 18 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has clarified that if the accused has not been arrested by the police, he or she can submit a bond for appearance in court instead of a bail bond. A single bench of Justice Manish Mathur gave this ruling on May 11 while quashing an order of a special court in Rae Bareli. The matter relates to a criminal case at the Shivgarh police station in Rae Bareli district. The trial court dismissed the accused's application on February 13, 2026. Later, the accused Pritam filed an appeal in the high court against the dismissal order. During the hearing, the petitioner's lawyer, Harpreet Singh Taneja, argued that the accused had filed an application with the trial court for a bond to appear on all future dates. However, the trial court dismissed the application as a bail bond, arguing that a bail bond cannot be granted without an arrest. He also cited a Supreme Court decision to support his arguments. To this, the high court stated that the law is clear that an appearance bond can be obtained from a person who appears in court. Since the accused was never taken into custody, there was no question of a bail bond. He was merely requesting an appearance bond, which was wrong to reject. The high court set aside the trial court's order and directed it to rehear the accused's application. It also stayed the bailable warrant issued against the accused until the application was disposed of. With these directions, the high court allowed the appeal....