# Pre-Arrest Bail: Section 498 CrPC

What the Criminal Procedure Code actually says about the power to admit a person to bail or
reduce a bail amount — quoted from the section, not paraphrased.

## The section, as retrieved

> 498. Power to direct admission to bail or reduction of bail: The amount of every bond
> executed under this Chapter shall be fixed with due regard to the circumstances of the
> case, and shall not be excessive, and the High Court or Court of Session may in any case,
> whether there be an appeal on conviction or not, direct that any person be admitted to
> bail, or that the bail required by a police officer or Magistrate be reduced.
>
> 498-A. No bail to be granted to a person not in custody, in Court or against whom no case
> is registered, etc.: Nothing in Section 497 or Section 498 shall be deemed to require or
> authorise a Court to release on bail any person who is not in custody, is not present in
> Court, or against whom no case stands registered, and any bail order is effective only in
> respect of the case actually specified in it.
>
> — Criminal Procedure Code, 1898, Chapter XXXIX, Sections 498 and 498-A. Retrieved from the
> corpus indexed by FAI Legal Research Assistant. Unverified for currency or amendment —
> confirm against an official or recently updated source before relying on it.

## What this means

Section 498 gives the **High Court or a Court of Session** a general power to admit a person
to bail, or to reduce a bail amount fixed by a police officer or a Magistrate, and requires
that a bond amount not be excessive. This is the provision most commonly used for what is
called "pre-arrest bail" in practice, though the section itself does not use that phrase.

Section 498-A is a limit, not a grant: it bars using that power to release someone not in
custody, not present in court, or against whom no case is registered, and confines a bail
order to the specific registered case named in it.

## What this page does not cover

- Procedural conditions courts have developed for pre-arrest bail applications — these come
  from case law and High Court rules, not from the bare text of Section 498.
- Bail in non-bailable offences generally — see
  [Section 497](https://failegal.site/bail-pakistan).
- Amendments made after this text was indexed.

## Frequently asked

**Does Section 498 mention "pre-arrest bail" by name?** No — the phrase does not appear.
It grants a general power to admit to bail or reduce bail, applied in practice to bail sought
before arrest.

**Can a bail order under Section 498 cover a case not yet registered?** No. Section 498-A
bars using Sections 497 or 498 to release someone against whom no case is registered.

- [Bail in non-bailable offences](https://failegal.site/bail-pakistan)
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