Bail – The prosecution case against appellant -maulvi is that he forcibly kept a mentally retarded minor in a Madarasa and that he converted the minor to a muslim- FIR was registered under under Sections 504 and 506 IPC and Section 3 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 – HC declined bail – Allowing appeal, SC observed: There was no good reason for the High Court to decline bail. The offence alleged is not that serious or grave like murder, dacoity, rape etc- The grant of bail is a matter of discretion. But discretion has to be exercised judicially keeping in mind the well settled principles of grant of bail. Discretion does not mean that the judge on his own whims and fancy declines bail saying conversion is something very serious- Ordinarily once the trial commences, the court should be loath in releasing the accused on bail, but it all depends on the nature of the crime. Had it been a case of murder or any other serious offence we would have declined- In the present case, although the trial is in progress and the prosecution witnesses are being examined yet it is a fit case to order release of the petitioner on bail subject to terms and conditions that the trial court may deem fit to impose- Other observations: Every year so many conferences, seminars, workshops etc. are held to make the trial judges understand how to exercise their discretion while considering a bail application as if the trial judges do not know the scope of Section 439 of the CrPC or Section 483 of the BNSS- Trial courts seldom muster the courage of granting bail, be it any offence- This is one of the reasons why the High Courts and now unfortunately the Supreme Court of the country is flooded with bail applications.