Shri R.K. Singh, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the respondent-accused countered the above arguments addressed on behalf of the appellants by contending that right to liberty was a fundamental right of a person under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and that right could be curtailed only by a procedure known to law and if that procedure established by law in not followed by the courts while refusing to grant bail, it is open to the aggrieved person to challenge and re-challenge the same before an appropriate forum. He contended that since principle of res-judicata or estoppel does not apply to criminal jurisprudence, there is no bar for an accused person to make successive bail applications and re-urge the questions which might have been urged earlier and negatived by the Court. Therefore, it is open to a court considering the grant of a fresh bail application to re-appreciate the material on record and come to a different conclusion even though the same has been rendered by a superior court. In other words the rule of finality does not apply to bail petitions. He further submitted that the courts below while considering the evidentiary value of the retracted confession in the earlier bail applications did not really appreciate the true legal position in law and as enunciated by this Court in Hari Charan vs. State of Bihar, AIR 1964 SC 1184, which had laid down that a retracted confession is a weak type of evidence. The learned counsel argued that in the present case apart from the retracted confession of one of the co-accused there is no supporting or corroborative evidence available for the prosecution, hence it is crystal clear that the prosecution has failed to establish a prima facie case. The learned counsel also contended that the material available on record in this case against the first respondent is not even sufficient for framing charges even though charge framed is not challenged. Commenting on the order of this Court in the second of the cases (supra), he contended that this court has not given a finding that there is a prima facie case against the respondent-accused nor has it dealt with the question of the evidentiary value of the retracted confession. Hence, the High Court was justified in going into these aspects of the case and coming to the conclusion that the prosecution case does not establish a prima facie case against the respondent accused. He also placed reliance on various judgements which were cited before the High Court in support of his arguments. Learned counsel submitted that existence of prima facie case is a sine-qua-non for refusal of bail and even if such a prima facie case is existing still it is well open to the accused persons to seek bail on other grounds but if there is no prima facie case made out from the prosecution material then the question of looking into the other grounds for grant of bail does not arise since lack of prima facie case by itself is sufficient to grant bail. Submit