India, July 19 -- The Supreme Court on Friday called upon all high courts across the country to consider introducing a mandatory rule requiring individuals seeking bail to disclose their involvement in any other criminal cases, holding that such a rule would aid judicial scrutiny and ensure that bail applications are not decided in isolation of an accused's criminal antecedents.

"This would impose an obligation on the accused to make disclosures regarding his/her involvement in any other criminal case(s) previously registered," emphasised a bench of justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta, adding that such a provision will strengthen the judiciary's ability to assess whether an accused deserves bail in a given case.

The Pun...